A Sept. 6 letter writer offered her fantasies disguised as facts of President Barack Obama's alleged firsts as president. I suspect her sources are Fox News and the right-wing blogosphere.
Here are some facts about the Republican nominee for president:
* He is the first presidential nominee in modern times who refuses to release a significant number of his tax returns.
* He is the first presidential nominee who maintained bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
* He is the first presidential nominee who avoided military service during the Vietnam War as a Mormon missionary in predominately Catholic France.
* He is the first presidential nominee who supported a woman's choice while running for office in Massachusetts and who now leads a party seeking to outlaw all abortions and restrict birth control.
* He is the first presidential candidate who signed a health care law with a mandate and now claims an identical mandate is unconstitutional.
* He is the first presidential candidate who made his fortune by taking over companies, shipping jobs overseas and bankrupting the companies while stripping the employees of their pensions resulting in the federal government providing pensions for those employees at taxpayer expense.
* He is the first presidential nominee who, as a college student in California, donned a Michigan state trooper's uniform and stopped motor vehicles, masquerading as a police officer.
The above are but a few of the firsts of the Republican nominee for presidency. Reality has a strange habit of crushing fantasies.
Richard L. Rost
Wailuku
