Fixated on animus

As a regular reader of columnist Jack Kelly, I am beginning to think he cannot help himself. Nary a week goes by without his entire column being devoted to taking potshots at President Barack Obama. It seems to me to be a condition bordering on obsession. While there are plenty of questions about the delegation of shared blame in the aftermath of the BP oil spill ("Little Man in Charge," June 20), Mr. Kelly chooses to instead focus on the personality of the one public figure history may show least culpable, given the horrendous burdens he inherited with the office. Loyal opposition and constructive criticism from the press is one thing, conspicuous animus quite another.

The most disquieting thing about Mr. Kelly's criticisms of the president is his steadfast refusal to acknowledge anywhere the decades of laissez-faire economics and the Ayn Randian myth of self-regulation.

And Mr. Obama's foes know full well that had he appeared on the shores of Louisiana the very next day after the spill, they would have accused him, at best, of grandstanding and photo-opping, or at worst, you would have been hearing scare-talk nonsense of his nationalizing the oil industry.

In the end, it is all about fairness.

JIM HOHMAN
Shadyside