<strong><span class="subhead">Obama: An agent of change?</span></strong></p><p>Barack Obama says Washington is run by politicians and he wants to &#8220;change&#8221; the country and help working folk. He says he knows how to do it. But who is he?</p><p>He apparently comes from a less-than-affluent childhood, and yet attended a private school in Honolulu and a very expensive Ivy League college. Who paid for all of this?</p><p>Has he ever had a real job so he can understand working people? It appears that he has mostly worked for and been kept by the Democratic Party in Chicago. Whom is he obligated to?</p><p>It is amazing to me that a relatively inexperienced state legislator could be elevated by the press to presidential candidate solely on the basis of one speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention.</p><p>The man reads a speech well, looks good and has a great speaking voice. But beyond that, his training convinces me that he is the most professional politician in the country, a product of media exposure and talk.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Jerry Overstreet</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Overland Park</em></p> Can this be the beginning of &#8220;politics as usual?&#8221; Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination with a message of change, especially in Washington. Now Obama has told the nation that he will abandon his once-held position of using public funds for the general election, a system designed to reduce the influence of money in politics (6/20, A-1, &#8220;In reversal, Obama rejects public funds&#8221;).</p><p>Call it the ability to raise money, call it a flip-flop, call it political expediency, call it the reality of Washington, call it business as usual &#8212; but let&#8217;s not call it change.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Jerry Stockman</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Glasgow, Mo.</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Looking back on the Clintons</span></strong></p><p>Joyce Patterson&#8217;s letter (6/19) regarding Hillary Clinton hit several nails on the head. So many untruths and acts have gone unpunished or even questioned. It makes one think. It would be so wrong to put her on the Democratic ticket, even as vice president.</p><p>My hope is that someday, in my lifetime, Vincent Foster&#8217;s widow will finally tell everything she knows &#8212; if not in a book, then at a press conference. I feel there is a lot there that has not been told for reasons unknown to us.</p><p>Enlighten us, Mrs. Vincent Foster. Please!</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Alene Briggs</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Cameron, Mo.</em></p> Joyce Patterson must have been influenced by the widespread &#8212; but false &#8212; Internet allegation that President Clinton first taxed Social Security benefits. Such benefits were made subject to taxation for the first time in 1983. Before then, they were not subject to income tax.</p><p>The president who first taxed Social Security benefits was not Bill Clinton. It was Ronald Reagan, who approved and signed the 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Max J. Skidmore</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Overland Park</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Write in your vote for Hillary</span></strong></p><p>This is to all the Hillary mourners and all the Barack-remorse buyers:</p><p>Right the wrong. Write in Hillary.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>John Slegman</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Leawood</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Guantanamo Bay series</span></strong></p><p>Thanks to <em>The Star </em>for running the series detailing the abuse of detainees at American prisons since the sad events of 9/11 (June 15-17, A-1). I commend the McClatchy Co. for developing a comprehensive story on this subject.</p><p>However, the sad fact is that much of this information has been in the public domain for many years now. Unfortunately this information did not register with the general public before the 2004 election, when our country essentially gave its stamp of approval to these practices by re-electing the man most responsible for these abuses. American history will forever be blighted with this record of torture and the American public&#8217;s tacit complicity.