I’ve learned it’s next to impossible to change the minds of those who are swept up in a fervor of adulation, the likes of which Sen. Obama is now experiencing. Even as a Republican, I had convinced myself from his seeming intelligence and measured self-control, he might even morph into a reasonable centrist to lead our country in these uncertain times, should my candidate lose.

But several weeks ago, when the extension of the warrantless wiretapping law passed in the Senate 68-29, with Sen. Obama in the minority, my confidence evaporated. In our fiber-optic world, terrorists communicate with each other through the Internet, and up to the time of the expiration, our intelligence operatives were able to intercept messages only that originated from international sources on their way to international receivers that merely passed through our lines.

Without the cooperation of our private telecoms, wiretapping would have been impossible, and for their indispensable help, they now face $40 billion in suits against them by the ACLU. Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat, has said our intelligence system will be degraded without it. The extension exempts them from further litigation, and if it were not so, it doesn’t take much imagination to guess they would turn a cold shoulder in the future.

Voters are right to have our troubled economy as their first priority. But should we submit to euphoria and downplay the threat out there and leave ourselves wide open, every one of us may look upon these days of security as enviable.

Where is Sen. Obama coming from, voting “no” on such a critical issue? Would he have made such a decision after Hillary Clinton’s ad on the red phone?

Didi Hundley

Perry