What are Obama's core principles?

  Kudos to Larry Minium for his July 24 letter to the editor ("Where does Barack Obama really stand?"). Minium's in-depth illustrations of Obama's "flip-flops," "positions changes," "enlightenment," whatever, on a number of issues should give pause for concern. Just exactly what core values and beliefs does Sen. Obama truly embrace?

   It is imperative that this election be decided on matters of substance, not platitudes and sound bites. Perhaps dodging Sen. John McCain's call for open joint town hall meetings speaks to the perceived weakness that Obama's messianic aura begins to fade in the absence of teleprompters and scripted speeches.

   While there is no place in this election cycle for false claims, innuendo and the bigotry of racism, there is also another form of bigotry which must be addressed: The bigotry of intellectual elitism.

   Whether it manifests itself in the form of demeaning rural residents of Pennsylvania as "bitter" and "clinging to their guns and their religion," chastising Americans for their lack of multilingual skills or supporters staging campaign posters near the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, hubris has been evident and shameless.

   McCain is certainly not immune from the afflictions of waffling and arrogance. Political expediency and voter outrage have proven to be the catalysts for a number of policy flips including illegal immigration reform. He has also shown disdain for the conservative base with sponsorship of the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act which was a direct assault on the First Amendment. What a pair to draw to.

  There once was a president by the name of Ronald Reagan. He extolled the virtues of rugged individualism, made us feel better about ourselves and our nation, and proclaimed that through our perseverance, America's best days would lie ahead.

   To quote Reagan, "There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, and no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect." My goodness, where is that mantel of leadership now?

RUSTY WASHUM
Yuma