Bush Election Won’t Alter Abortion Issue

* Re “Beware of Bush; He’s Not What He Seems,” Commentary, Oct. 24: Robert Scheer should take out a calculator and add up the costs of all the promises Al Gore has made to specific voting blocs and let us know where the funds will come from for those programs. I don’t hear any proposal for reforming Social Security from Gore or Scheer, and we all know the trust will be bankrupt when baby boomers retire if nothing is done.

Scheer is trying to scare us on the abortion issue. Supreme Court justices are appointed for life and have a shared history with politicians of not necessarily doing what they have said in the past. Judge Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed by a Republican president and has supported abortion rights over personal objection. A woman’s right to choose is the law of the land and the preference of a majority of Americans. The Supreme Court is not going to change that.

JOSEPH McDONNELL

Los Angeles

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Scheer’s column should be required reading for every registered voter. He hit the nail squarely on the head and articulated the true nature of George W. and this election. Incidentally, since when did Republicans become such avid supporters and advocates of so many domestic issues? Social Security, Medicare, environmental and health issues have never been on their agenda.

Bush’s inane oratory, his use of platitudes and generalities and his apparent lack of a grasp of the facts substantiate and confirm my fear that he is not qualified for the presidency.

DAN PELLOW

Los Angeles

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The most important issue of this campaign has barely been touched on. It is eliminating the national debt, the majority of it having been accumulated during the Reagan-Bush years. I don’t want to pass it on to my children. While Gore may fund some new programs, his plan will pay down the debt every year and totally erase it early in the next decade. Bush’s economic plan does not address paying off the debt whatsoever. That is because his massive tax cut for the wealthy will continue to leave our nation in debt. While the surplus is ours, so is the debt. The bottom line is that “spender” Gore is in reality more fiscally responsible than Bush.

MICHAEL LORRAINE

Simi Valley

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Will someone clear this up for me? I hear the Democrats say repeatedly that Bush does not have enough experience to serve as president because he is merely a governor. But wasn’t Bill Clinton merely a governor and of a much smaller state before he became president? These same people insist that Clinton is a great president. Where did he get all his experience, if not on the job?

JANET McDONALD

Orange

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My problem with this election is I can’t vote for Gore because I don’t believe what he says. But I can’t vote for Bush because I do believe what he says.

JOE FOSTER

Duarte