Criticism of Obama makes untrue, unsupported claims

Editor,

I'm writing in response to Daniel Martinez's bizarre claim that loyal Democrats should not vote for Barack Obama for president because of various assaults on Obama's character and that the Democratic nomination was "stolen" for him by the Democratic National Committee. Martinez said Obama "associates" with people who either "hate America" or are so liberal that they may as well be socialists.

Before getting to the factual assertions Martinez makes in his letter, it is imperative to note that Martinez uses language that seems to identify him not as a "loyal Democrat" and "bitter Hillary Clinton supporter," but as a right-wing Republican whose only purpose is to infuriate genuine Clinton supporters. Even if we take Martinez at his word, that he is a jaded Clinton supporter who genuinely doesn't believe Obama should be president, there are several factual assertions he makes that are simply untrue. Martinez writes that the Democratic National Committee "stole" the nomination for Obama, yet anyone who followed the Democratic primaries would not only know that there was no point in time when Obama did not have a lead among those Democratic delegates who were elected by primaries and caucuses, but that Clinton had held a consistent and very strong lead among Democratic superdelegates who were such by virtue of being members of the Democratic National Committee. Martinez also makes the absurd claim that being an "associate" of a person must mean that you share the same ideals as they do. I'm sure this will be a big shock to Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a very conservative Republican, and Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, a very liberal Democrat, who have been close friends for 20 years. And incidentally, if Martinez wants to complain about whom a person "associates" with, then maybe he'd like to look at Sen. John McCain's association with Charles Keating Jr.

Martinez also attempts to attack Obama's character by calling him a racist, a liar and a misogynist without ever making any claims to back it up. And as far as misogyny is concerned, Obama has a strong record on women's rights issues and on issues that specifically affect women including birth control, abortion rights, pay equality and on cracking down on sexual harassment. Martinez calls himself a "faithful Democrat for 25 years," yet his choice of language exposes his true bias as a Republican concern-troll whose only motivation is to sow the seeds of discontent among Clinton backers, the vast majority of whom have no problem backing Obama over a conservative hack like McCain.

Elliot Kaufman

UNM student