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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

Party Is The Problem

Regarding "Attacks Heat Up At GOP Debate" (front page, Nov. 29):

The Republican presidential debate was very revealing. Lost in all the gossip about who attacked whom is the fact that the whole gang is still groveling before the all-powerful extreme right political machine. The Republican presidential campaign is ongoing tragic-comic theater where contestants launch ever-more ridiculous claims about who would out-bomb, out-borrow and out-pander the others. The problem is not the candidates - it's the party itself.

The regressive Republican base will continue to kowtow to its corporate and religious masters, because it has nowhere else to turn. It has burned every bridge it might have used to connect with people in the mainstream. By that I mean people with common sense, realistic views and traditional American values like work, education, health, personal freedom and responsibility.

Which GOP candidate is standing up for personal privacy and freedom, for the middle class and for the planet we live on? None of them.

SCOTT COCHRAN

Tampa

A Simple Question

Not that I could ever figure out how to YouTube a video question, but I would love for the moderator to ask the following at one of the debates:

"Please raise your hand if in the past three months you have had to physically pay your mortgage, write an insurance policy check, fill your tank with gas, buy groceries including milk, pay your health insurance policy and your property taxes." Then I would ask them if they haven't had to personally take care of each of the expenses that everyday Americans must face, how can they possibly understand the plight of the middle class?

My guess is that none of them could raise their hand for all of the above and that is what scares me most about the current crop of candidates.

JOHN HAYES

Valrico

Clinton News Network?

It is now apparent to all that Hillary Clinton believes that she controls the media and that she is entitled to slavish support for her candidacy from that quarter. We are therefore not surprised by her admonition to Wolf Blitzer prior to the last Democratic debate that he better not pull a "Tim Russert" and actually perform a journalistic function while moderating a debate.

Fortunately, the debates are as meaningless as the polls and no real damage is done by CNN permitting a Clinton plant to pose a question in a debate that was intended to be independent. At the very least, CNN's journalistic incompetence should now be apparent to all.

JEFF MEYER

Clearwater

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