"[V]oters are apt to stick with the deficient, but safer, incumbent," your editorial about the presidential race concludes ["Man with a plan?" Sept. 23].

Safer? When our debt spiral passes $16 trillion on Obama's watch, he is certifiably deficient. And so our debt rating is lowered again, but we're worse off than we'd have been with just about anyone else you could have named. His refusal to deal with the debt commission's recommendations produced our current financial logjam.

Obama doesn't lead. He dictates. That's how, with Democrat majorities in both houses, he burdened us with Obamacare, a costly noose tightening around everyone's neck.

Deficient? And how. Look at the mess Obama has created with our current foreign policy: a Middle East on fire with burned American flags. Even locally here in bureaucrat-land, ask any career government worker how his political bosses are working out. Stand back. From what I hear it's not just waste and unbridled growth in spending, it's the outright arrogance of the current crop of Obama appointees.

They must be fired, and our agencies returned to responsible leadership. Obama's re-election would prevent that and much more.

Mitt Romney is the responsible alternative. Ignore him and we'll face four more miserable years.

Benjamin R. Blankenship Jr.

Stafford