Too mean to Obama?

• Author: Szuba, Tim
• Position: Letter to the editor

I am disappointed (again) with Matthew Rothschild's Comment, this time "Obama's Hollow Words" in the July issue. If someone picked up these criticisms without knowing the roadblocks Congress continues to throw up against President Obama concerning Guantanamo, the reader might think he just has not tried.

If Obama were a dictator and did nothing, I would be upset with the lack of results. But he has to work with the House. Rothschild missed saying anything about the "pushback" the President continues to get.

P.S. I love your magazine!

Tim Szuba

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

As long as Obama can pose the issue simplistically in terms of "security through surveillance" vs. "terrorism," he can probably get away with monitoring our every snail mail, phone call, e-mail, Skype, Google chat, and daydream ("A State of Surveillance," Comment, August). That's because we're letting him implicitly define "terrorism" as Osama bin Laden rising from the dead and setting off bombs in our malls to kill our children.

The American people will put up with almost anything if Obama gets away with making them think that's a real threat, and that Big Brother-level surveillance will keep it from happening.

Surely, the job of progressives is to remind people of the real issue, which is...