Once again Clair is roaming around Missouri looking for support. Fresh off of her anti prescription drug plan rant, in which she paraded her elderly mother around telling everyone how confused she was about it. You would think after visiting all those cities that Clair could have figured it out and explained it to her mom. My mom signed up for the plan and figured it out without any problems. Was it confusing? Sure, aren't all government forms confusing? So what does she recommend for an alternative? Nothing, she says to go ahead and sign up anyway, as it is better than nothing.  If Clair is unable to comprehend something that so many seniors are figuring out then she will probably have a hard time figuring out how to be a Senator.

Clair likes to say that she "was for Ethanol, before Ethanol was cool". No Clair you were for it before it was practical. Back when gas prices were little more than $1.00 a gallon, it was not cost effective to produce. Now with higher prices, the time is right to develop this resource. But now you don't support it! You see Clair has proudly spoken out about how she doesn't support the energy bill that actually promotes Ethanol. She says that was because it was a $14 billion handout to big oil. But Clair is still confused. As there was no handout to big oil, only incentives to build more refineries, and develop new sources of energy, including ethanol. Clair has never been in a position to vote on it and doesn’t understand that Ethanol alone is not the solution to our energy problems. It is only a part of it. Ethanol produces at least 20% less BTU’s than gasoline. I own a Flex Fuel Ford Explorer, and can verify that I get significantly less miles per gallon when running on E-85 Ethanol. However I will fill up with it whenever the price is right. That can be hard as there is only one station in all of St. Joe that sells E-85. Jim Talent has done something about this; he has actually cast a vote to help get more Ethanol refineries built.

On the situation in the Middle East, she says the military option needs to be on the table with Iran. Tough talk from someone who says we need to redeploy out of Iraq. Well I have news for Clair, the military option IS on the table and just like we did in Iraq, we are going to exhaust the diplomatic options before we act in Iran. Clair doesn't say where we would redeploy those forces to. She is obviously confused again and needs to understand that our forces in Iraq along with those in Afghanistan are in a prefect position to act if called upon to deal with Iran. Along with our carrier forces in the Persian Gulf, we now are on two more of Iran’s borders. It’s no wonder that the Iranians are desperately trying to stop us in Iraq. They know they could be next. The vast majority of forces now in Iraq are not bogged down; they are based in camps located around Iraq, ready to act if called upon. If you don't believe me ask someone who is or was actually over there. The only forces bogged down are the liberal media that hide in their Baghdad hotels and report only the bad news. They don't come out and see the positive things our troops are doing around the country. Clair is the last person I want to trust when it comes to our men and women in the Military.

No, Clair is simply too confused to be our Senator, don't let her confuse you too.

Timothy Dike
Plattsburg, MO.