Dear editor, What a disappointment to see the Register endorsing McCain. Over the last years Napa has been increasingly progressive in every good sense of the word. As we have prospered as a region, the community has moved forward with downtown business on the upswing, diverse cultural events coming to our venues, and local charities the beneficiaries of sustaining support. We would hope the community newspaper would reflect our optimism and aspirations by supporting the forward-looking Obama.

The Register, which endorsed the disastrous presidency of George W. Bush, now chooses to stand behind the candidate who with every passing day seems less a maverick than an angry, erratic, tired figure as he lurches to defend policies that unravel by the day.

McCain and Palin are scary with their pandering to the lowest instincts of “Joe Six Pack” (what a laugh to see fundamentalists playing to the brewski drinkers). John McCain certainly showed character as a POW but he seems unreflective as to the basic error in world view that led us into that war. In a similar manner he simplistically believes by “surging” long enough we can achieve a “victory” in Iraq, overlooking the little detail that we are basically empowering a Shiite regime functioning as a client state of Iran.

We are all suffering the results of electing an administration that abdicated on its responsibilities for oversight and regulation whose disregard for government was characterized by their talk of “starving the beast.” The American people made a mistake in electing someone they would like to have a beer with, and we now have to live with decisions made from the gut.

How quickly this regime went from a policy of privatizing when there were profits to socializing risks and debts, coming in as social conservatives and going out more like conservative socialists in trying to correct the financial mess. We’ve descended a long way from the reasoned conservative principles so well articulated by William F. Buckley to the rudderless, dumbed-down antics of McCain and Palin. Elitism starts to look very attractive. It sure would be good to sit down with Obama over a glass of Napa Valley cabernet for some reasoned discussion about where we need to go from here.

Bill Dyer / Calistoga