I’ve really had it with John Carlson’s opinion pieces. I’m not sure his opinions are worth the paper they’re written on.

Last week, we got a Carlson column about the legality of a teachers strike in Bellevue. Hello??? We live in Renton. We have pressing local issues here. What about the Renton School District, which has significant performance problems, regardless of the glowingly positive reports regularly printed in the “Good News” section. I don’t care about the legal theory concerning the Bellevue teachers strike, or Carlson’s superficial analysis of what the Bellevue School Board should have done. My guess is this is also a very low priority for other Renton Reporter readers.

Normally, we get a Carlson editorial lambasting Gregoire or Obama or some other Democrat. The byline says John Carlson is a radio commentator. He’s a lot more than that. He ran for Washington governor in 2000 on the Republican ticket! He’s a conservative Republican political commentator. He’s hardly impartial. If you don’t believe me, look on Wikipedia or other online sources. John Carlson is rarely or never going to support Obama or Gregoire, no matter what their positions or actions. The least the Renton Reporter could do is some truth in advertising in John Carlson’s byline. Something like “Conservative talk show, and Republican candidate for governor in 2000.” It would be better to find an opinion writer who could talk more about Renton and who has less ideological rigidity.

We’ve had eight years of mis-government from a Republican administration characterized by secrecy, bad decisions and poor execution. We are bogged down in an unnecessary and very costly war in Iraq, with no end in sight. We’ve been there longer than we were in World War II. We have record government spending and record national debt. Our infrastructure is falling behind that of other countries. I could have supported John McCain, but his campaign has descended into fear-mongering, gutter politics, and pandering to his right-wing base. I’m not saying I’m 100-percent satisfied with Obama. But we don’t need any more spinning from such a biased source as John Carlson.

Daniel Goldman

Renton