Editor, Times-Union: I faithfully read Gary Gerard’s Saturday morning editorials. Usually in a single editorial, there are points I agree, and points I don’t. He likely expects that from his readers.
However, in an editorial he published a few weeks ago, I was totally in disagreement.
Mr. Gerard stated that if the Republicans were to have a chance at beating Obama, they would have to have a candidate that ran from the center. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Every single Presidential winner since early in the last century ran from either the right or the left. Wilson ran from the left. Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, ran from the right. Franklin Roosevelt ran four times from the hard left. Truman ran from the left. Eisenhower might be the only exception, but he won as a celebrated war hero. Kennedy ran from the left, as did Lyndon Johnson. Nixon ran from the right. Carter ran from the far left, beating Gerald Ford who ran from the middle. Reagan ran from the right. Bush One ran from the right on Reagan’s coattails, and won the first time, but he ran from the middle and lost the second time against Clinton, who ran from the left. Clinton then beat Dole, who ran from the middle. Bush Two ran from the right twice and won. Obama ran from the far left and beat McCain, who ran from the middle. Summarizing, middle runners don’t win. The Republican candidate, and it looks like Romney, must run from the right, if he has any chance at all.
Mr. Gerard also stated a few weeks ago that the the TV in the newsroom is always on CNN. He said he found Fox News too bias. Surely he is joking. CNN, along with MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and ABC are far left of center and very bias. Fox is fair and balanced, just ask left wing Fox contributors Bob Beckel and Alan Colmes.
However, in great agreement, Mr. Gerard, your editorial last Saturday regarding your opinion of the Buffet Rule, is was the best you have ever written. You were “spot on”. I suggest to your readers that if they haven’t read it, they should. It is a terrific piece.
