John McCain needs your help
The Post-Gazette endorsed Barack Obama for president on Sunday and, if tradition holds true, over the next several days some readers will be so shocked and disgusted that they will announce they will be canceling their subscriptions. Although our endorsement is always the least surprising thing in the paper, given our stated editorial positions over previous months, this reaction happens every four years. I think it would be the same had John McCain got our endorsement - it would just be a different group of people offended.
Whether irritated readers actually cancel their subscriptions, I do not know but I expect some do. That is too bad, and not only because I have a personal stake in the finances of the PG in order to keep paying my bar bill. No, we need a loyal opposition to keep us on our toes. Dissent is good, good for us, good for the paper. Really.
Which brings me to what shocked and appalled readers can do to express their ire in a more sensible fashion - to wit, express their ire in a letter to the editor. More to the point, write a letter supporting John McCain, a type of communication currently as rare as hen's teeth,
This year, for the first time in living memory, we are finding it hard to find pro-Republican candidate letters suitable to print. Perhaps this is because all those disgruntled people have canceled their subscriptions and have gone over to the Tribune Review, journal of the perpetually agitated. Perhaps it's because McCain is so unpopular in these parts that no one can write a decent word in his favor.
We have a feature called Picking Sides prominently displayed on the letters page. It has illustrations of Obama and McCain staring at each other and it invites comments from partisans on both sides. As it is now, we are getting perhaps 10 pro-Obama letters for every one pro-McCain letter. If letter writing to the editor were the election, Obama would be winning by a landslide.
GOP supporters: Stop stewing in your own juices and get writing. We want to hear from you. If Obama is staring at McCain in the Picking Sides box and there's no one to support him underneath, it will look embarrassing. And it will be your fault.
Tell us in 100 words or less, either by e-mailing your comments to
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or joining our Picking Sides forum online at