Beware, voters, beware! Republican mouthbreathers are prowling the Opinion pages in force. Last Sunday’s Press contained no fewer than four letters attempting to perpetuate Republican lies about President Obama that have been disproved time after time by fact-checkers of all political persuasions. But even some of their leaders have admitted that they won’t let facts stand in their way. They continue to promote these baseless lies for one purpose – to try to portray President Obama as “different” from us, as un-American. If they thought they could get away with it, they would remind you that he is not white. The truth is that our President is a black American Christian.

News for all of you Birthers – all of your ridiculous conspiracy theories have been completely debunked. President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. The State of Hawaii has issued a certified, absolutely authentic copy of his birth certificate. Get over it!

President Obama is a Christian. He believes that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. To me, that makes him a better Christian than those who bear false witness against him by perpetuating the lie that he is a Muslim.

Anyone with an open mind can verify the facts that President Obama is a natural born United States citizen and a Christian. Those who continue to promote the lies that he is not are simply trying to deceive the voters or themselves because they hate the President.

When President Obama took office, the U.S. was losing 800,000 jobs per month. Since stopping this hemorrhage of job losses, we have had 29 straight months of private sector job gains. Government cutbacks have led to the loss of about 600,000 public sector jobs, but even this trend has slowed. We are not yet producing the number of jobs we want, but we surely don’t want to go back to the same old policies that got us into this mess in the first place. Romney’s plans to cut taxes for the wealthiest among us may make his rich friends happy, but it won’t build the strong middle class that we need to make our economy run, and it won’t begin to pay down our national debt.

Don’t listen to Republican lies. Re-elect President Obama and support legislators who will cooperate with him to produce a balanced combination of spending cuts and taxes that will lead to the gradual reduction of our debt. Instead of a retreat to the failed policies of Bush-era trickle down economics, tax cuts for the wealthy, and unpaid-for wars, choose the path forward. We can bring back a strong middle class, where workers can find good jobs that allow them to provide for themselves and their children.

DOUG STRONG

Fernwood