Jim Fossel’s recent exercise in creative writing (“‘Weird’ isn’t a pejorative term,” Aug. 11) struck me as more untethered from reality than usual. Take Fossel’s assessment of Joe Biden, that the president is really good at screwing up. I do remember two of Joe’s mistakes: his part in putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court and his disregard of his military advisers on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which led to the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemen and women. Let’s remember that between Oct. 1, 2001, when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, and Aug. 30, 2021, when the U.S. left Afghanistan, there were 1,922 U.S. combat deaths, 13 of which occurred during Joe Biden’s time in office. Of course, had any of Biden’s predecessors, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump gotten out of Afghanistan, there would have been zero combat deaths during Biden’s time in office.

Next, let’s examine Fossel’s take on Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, “without a single voter in the country having a say in it.” One might ask just how would it have been possible for any voter save delegates to the Democratic National Convention to have a say. The Constitution says nothing at all about the succession of a sitting president, so where’s the beef?

And, finally, Fossel didn’t think much of Tim Walz as VP choice. Fossel might have looked into Walz’s accomplishments, outlined in the Maine Sunday Telegram’s same Aug. 11 Opinion section (“Tim Walz is a regular guy. That’s exactly what Harris needs.”), but, of course, he specializes in creative writing.

Jonathan Mitschele
New Gloucester