Rhoda Simplicio simple-mindedly tried to equate Sean Smith’s “Expect More” motto with President Barack Obama’s “Hope and Change” motto (Letters, Herald, July 16). Then she asked how that’s worked out for this country.

When Obama took office, this country was losing 400,000 jobs a month! Now, we’re adding more than 200,000 every month. We were stuck in two of the longest and most expensive wars in our nation’s history. Most of our troops are now home. Our stock market was in free fall; it is now setting new records weekly. Instead of record home foreclosures, our Durango Realtors can’t find enough homes to sell. Banks are no longer failing at record rates. Crime is down. Teen pregnancy is down. Drug addiction is down. We are exporting oil! By almost any measurement you can think of, we are orders of magnitude better off than when George W. Bush left office.

If Simplicio is trying to tar Sean Smith with Obama’s brush, I think she’s doing him an unintentional favor.

Steve Caplan

Durango