To the editor:

The Saturday Column of Oct. 10, in its badly disguised attack on President Obama, is full of errors. While I’ve been slowly cutting my 1,000-word refutation to the required 250, other readers have done a good job with some glaring ones. What remains?

It castigates the president for “using every means to change this nation’s successful system of medical care.” But the U.S. health care system is far from “successful.” It is the world’s most expensive but leaves over 9 to 10 million people uninsured. It is rated 37th by the World Health Organization. Many U.S. analyses show that its results don’t justify the cost. Most legislators agree that some reform is necessary, and former Republican Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Bill Frist, along with the Health and Human Services secretaries for both Bushes, support health care insurance reform now.

It accuses the president of wanting to weaken the United States (!), including wanting “to close down and free many of the Guantanamo detainees.” We understand this claim despite its senseless syntax; but more than a few former high-ranking U.S. military officials have been arguing for the closure. President Bush said that he wanted to close the prison (though he later decided not to); and the U.S. Supreme Court, by deciding that the Constitution applies to Guantanamo, effectively began its closure (see Boumediene v. Bush).

Finally, its attack on keeping GM and Chrysler from collapse is either laughably ignorant, or disingenuous.

What an accomplishment for only one column!