The President and the Press

Carl Bernstein’s column (“It’s Press vs. Bush: A Bruising Fight,” Opinion, Oct. 25) summarizes the Bush/Republican motivation--to do what it takes to win elections. President Bush says “Who can you trust?” As Bernstein said, “The scandal . . . of the Banco Nazionale . . . is all about an election year cover-up to hide the fact that the Bush Administration led the world into war to reverse an aggression that the Administration’s policy had encouraged.” Bush and Secretary of State James Baker secretly pushed for funneling money to Iraq “as part of a wildly misguided geopolitical game. . . .” Also, “Bush’s demonstrably false claim (about Iran-Contra) that he was out of the loop.”

We can’t trust a President who says “we are not in such bad shape” when the homeless and unemployed and lost jobs to foreign countries have increased so much in the last 12 years. People are being gunned down in streets all over the country. Can we trust a President who fights against any control over the proliferation of guns? His policies of deregulation allowed the S&L; scandal, a prime reason for escalating deficits. And there is so much more not talked about generally that demonstrate that we can trust Bill Clinton and Al Gore much more than Bush and Dan Quayle. I am a lifelong Republican, informed and concerned about my country, who recognizes the truth.

ELSA BENGUIAT, Carlsbad