The stakes are too high for voters to get it wrong this election. I will be voting for the Obama-Biden ticket because I believe this team is on the right side of the issues and has the right leadership qualities for this time. I am also disgusted by the way John McCain has conducted himself and his campaign.

I understand why McCain strategists believe their candidate can’t win on the merits of the issues. The catastrophic situations we are facing both at home and abroad culminate from the President Bush-John McCain worldview, ideology and policymaking. It’s too late now for McCain to pretend he isn’t a Republican. And it doesn’t excuse resorting to lies, manufactured controversies, phony outrage, petty distractions, risky surprises, scare tactics and smears.

McCain is running a dishonest campaign that is beneath him. He grossly misrepresents Barack Obama’s policy positions and relentlessly assaults Obama’s character. Accusing Obama, a fellow senator, of “palling around with terrorists” and saying he would rather lose the war than lose the election sets a sleazy low in presidential politics. It seems McCain would rather lose his moral standing and good name than lose this election.

By sticking to the same destructive Rovian tactics Republicans have used to win before, and standing by the worst of Bush’s bad policies, McCain has not shown himself to be the maverick he thinks he is. Self-delusion is the saddest lie of all.

Minnette Pereira

Lee