I just found it online (was canvassing all day yesterday so didn't look) but a note says "as of Thursday, November 1." This small-town paper is published Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, so who knows. Anyway, it's there now.
They changed my title from "A Scary Candidate" to "'Gaffes' are Revealing." Apart from moving a paragraph break, I don't think they made other edits.
The text as published is pasted below. Thank you to all who encouraged me and suggested edits. I was tied up in knots over it and you provided much needed impetus and improved the letter. It was hard for me to write and took a ridiculous amount of time, even after the ideas had been in my head for weeks).
"Gaffes" are revealing
Beyond the marketing done by political campaigns, how do we know how a candidate would govern? In Mitt Romney’s case, little information is available. In telling different groups what he thinks they want to hear, he has contradicted himself on every issue of concern to voters.
We cannot glean much from his past performance. His company, Bain Capital, was famously secretive. After his tenure as governor, email records were destroyed and his staff purchased the hard drives on their computers.
The Salt Lake Olympics? Same story. And as everyone knows, Mr. Romney has denied us the insight into his personal priorities and decision-making that we could learn from his tax returns. Mr. Romney’s secrecy makes Nixon look forthright.
Still, his so-called “gaffes” are revealing. They are not a matter of poor word choice in the heat of enthusiasm. No, Mr. Romney’s embarrassing moments are of a different kind. They reveal the candidate’s unfamiliarity — I’ll say it straight, his ignorance — of areas such as the concerns of the middle class, education, and foreign affairs.
No candidate knows everything, of course. However, Mr. Romney’s ignorance on key issues that affect ordinary Americans tells us his priorities. If the issues had any importance to him, he would have paid them some attention in the five years he has run for president. He has not.
That’s scary.
name
town