1980 Election ‘Hostage Tale’

It’s pretty disappointing to see the respected Times print a smear article exactly two weeks before the election. Funny how something like this just “happens” to surface shortly before election time.

This year has seen a lot of people complaining that the candidates don’t or won’t focus on the issues. Actually, both candidates have tried to do so, but apparently The Times would rather give front-page coverage to drivel like the hostage deal article than say, Bush’s speech about his plans for the economy. This speech, which took place on the day previous to your article, was covered in detail not in the print media, which normally have the ability to cover events in depth, but instead by the MacNeil/Lehrer TV news show. The Times dwelt instead on the results of public opinion polls, and on campaign strategy. More interesting than the issues to some, but certainly not more important.

I, like many of my close friends, couldn’t find a good job in 1979, when the Democrats were in the White House, but now have a good job with a good company in an industry which didn’t even exist eight years ago. (Yes, one of those “service industry” jobs that Dukakis thinks so poorly of). Needless to say, like most other Americans, I’ll be voting for Bush.

ROGER J. BUFFINGTON

South Pasadena