CLICKBACK ON STORMS, BANKS

This week, ClickBack seeks editorial page reader comments on how voters make up their minds on presidential candidates, punishment for Seamore’s kidnappers, how the federal government might better prepare for and respond to hurricanes, and banking bankruptcy. As always, readers should go to bangordailynews.com and pull down on the Opinion menu bar to find ClickBack. Some reader comments may be featured on Friday’s OpEd page.

Also, readers are encouraged to post their own questions, or to respond to questions posed in past weeks.

How do you choose a president – policies, personality, character, experience or judgment?

Since the election is fewer than 50 days away, undecided voters are now beginning to lean toward John McCain or Barack Obama. Are you one of them? What sways you? Is it an analysis of their very different policies, and very different life experiences? Or is it an emotional connection to their personalities, as they come across on TV? Can voters accurately project how a candidate will handle a crisis? And what about their character, their moral compass – is this discernible? Is it important?

Gorilla justice – what does it look like?

Seamore the gorilla is back home in East Machias. The mechanical gorilla was stolen Labor Day weekend and dumped in a cornfield in Vermont. What should happen to the person who took Seamore? Should he or she have to stand in front of the East Machias store in full gorilla regalia for a weekend? Eat only bananas for a week? Post videos on YouTube, tricycle optional, explaining that crime doesn’t pay?

Should the federal government come up with a different hurricane response plan?

Just hours after Hurricane Ike devastated the Texas coast and Houston, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was being criticized for its handling of the response. Should the federal government spend more money preparing for hurricanes? Should FEMA impose stricter guidelines on where houses can be built? Should mandatory evacuations have the force of law? What, if anything, was learned from the Hurricane Katrina disaster?

What should be guideline for bailing out banks?

The federal government has refused to bail out the financial institution Lehman Bros., yet it bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Where does the fed draw the line? Has the government set a dangerous precedent by concluding that some institutions are “too big to fail,” while others are apparently not?

Go to bangordailynews.com to share your thoughts.