PRESIDENTIAL RACE

ENDORSEMENT STORY DESERVED TO BE PAGE 1

Come now. You missed the editorial mark on this one. On the back page of the main news section of the Saturday, March 22, edition of The Advertiser was an article titled, "New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson endorses Obama," while on the front page were several local articles on local issues — one on a sex-education play at Kahuku High School and another on city pools closed for repairs.

On the national stage, the Richardson endorsement is very big news. As one of the former Democratic candidates for president (who ended his candidacy in January) who was a former Clinton administration official, and the only Hispanic governor in the U.S., his endorsement of Barack Obama is huge.

With a very large Hispanic voter population in the U.S., and with polls showing their inclination for Hillary, and the Hillary Clinton camp actively seeking his endorsement, too, the Richardson endorsement could be a milestone in the Obama candidacy and help put him "over the top" in his presidential bid.

And The Advertiser relegated this story to a back page. Come now. The Richardson endorsement deserves front-page coverage.

MCCAIN'S AGE IS A VALID QUESTION FOR VOTERS

Should there be cognitive tests for presidential candidates?

Ellen Goodman's March 30 column quotes an interesting poll result: 24 percent of Americans under 35 think John McCain is too old to be president, while 40 percent of those over 65 believe he is. Do the older voters know something the younger ones don't? McCain would be 72 when inaugurated, and 80 if he served two terms.

Many people think that President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease started while he was still in office.

I think it is a valid question whether McCain is too old. I am 78, and although I don't expect to get Alzheimer's disease, I know that my thinking is slower than it once was. And my memory is slower. I can do fewer things in a day, and I get tired more easily than once upon a time.

Luckily I don't have to decide on the basis of age, because McCain's support for the war and other Bush policies would never allow me to vote for him.

But I hope my Republican friends, especially the older ones, will consider whether a Democrat might be better than an aging, tired man who might easily deteriorate while in office.

OBAMA'S TUTU DIDN'T DESERVE COMPARISON

It appears from your March 30 article, "Obama's tutu a pioneer for women in Hawai'i banking," that Barack Obama's tutu got a bum rap and didn't deserve that ignominious comparison to the disreputable Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

It turns out she wasn't a closet bigot after all. I had been leaning toward voting for Obama prior to the Rev. Wright business, but now I'm undecided.

The calculating and cynical exploitation of his grandmother's reputation to deflect criticism of his expedient and questionable association with Jeremiah Wright makes one question this man's character and integrity.

Are all expendable in the furtherance of his political ambitions? If tutu's fair game, it appears so.

VOTERS UNDERSTAND EXPERIENCE IMPORTANT

Assuming you are right, your Easter Sunday editorial (March 23) said it best, "two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic healthcare crisis and potentially devastating climate change," are the very reasons why an unproven senator, Barack Obama, should not be viewed as a messiah who will cure all of America's and the world's ills (as he is being touted).

When you consider the aforementioned issues in relation to the babbling of an angry pastor, Jeremiah Wright, voters are smart to figure out what is important (political experience vs. racism). Presidential hopefuls Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain will not change the way African-Americans (or any other race) view America.

History shows that when it comes to race relations, former presidents have no lasting influence. Realistically, how one treats or views another race, religion, gender, etc., is primarily an individual choice and not one that can be dictated by someone in the Oval Office.

HIGHWAY LIGHTING

SUGGESTIONS OFFERED TO THWART COPPER THIEVES

Mariush Chmiel's comments (Letters, April 6) regarding street lights, ideas offered to help thwart copper thieves were pretty good, though I would think the solar/wind-powered option would be kind of expensive using current technology.

I have a couple of additional suggestions that also might help thwart the copper wire thief problem.

My first suggestion, which I think might greatly reduce the problem and save thousands of dollars annually in electrical expenses, would be to remove the lighting on those long stretches between interchanges where copper is always getting stolen.

The only lighting should be for emergency call boxes and those could be covered with solar/wind power installations. Driving conditions would improve during rainy whether due to a reduction in glare that those highway lights cause. The removal of those lights would also cause people to drive to the distance their headlights can see. This would slow people down, which would save lives and reduce gas consumption.

My second suggestion is to install hold-back restraints or break-link sections at each light. The hold-back restraints would be some form of stopper that the copper wire is threaded through and would be hard to unthread without a special tool. That should make it too time consuming for the copper thieves to undo.

The break-away links would be a coupler that is out of reach of copper thieves without a special tool that would break when someone tries to pull the cable without bypassing the break- away link section.

MIDEAST

NOT TRUE THAT WAR IN IRAQ IS ALL ABOUT OIL

A recent letter asserted that the war in Iraq only concerns oil. This is not true.

More than 73 percent of our oil comes from other sources: Iraq ranks eighth in importing nations, right above the Virgin Islands.

Here are a few facts rarely reported and all are verifiable on the Department of Defense Web site.