March 9, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: Reading your last issue (3/4/26), I was pleased to see Mr. Lowry had finally come around to the painful truth that “bait and switch” is a terrible campaign tactic.
Since the president had just started a war with Iran, I thought Mr. Lowry was going to suggest Mr. Trump had executed a spectacular bait and switch on his voters. He ran on the “bait” that he would avoid war with Iran and other futile “nation building” exercises. His VP, Mr. Vance, assured us that they would keep us out of war. Other fans of Mr. Trump said his bloodthirsty opponents relished the thought of sending our young people to bleed for oil.
Look back a little further and you can find Mr. Trump accusing President Obama of seeking a war with Iran because Mr. Obama lacked negotiating skills. “The Art of the Deal” and all of that.
Oh boy, was I wrong! Mr. Lowry instead went on a tear about how our new governor had revealed herself to be a hard core left-wing progressive and was dooming my beloved commonwealth to an endless period of taxation, poverty and general sinfulness.
It would be a waste of ink to address each of Mr. Lowry’s outlandish “hair on fire” assertions. I will just wait for his column condemning Mr. Trump’s deadly bait and switch. I suspect I may be waiting a long time.
On the other hand, grace requires that I assume he will quickly condemn Mr. Trump and that this column was put to bed before the war started.
In the meantime, I will take comfort in rereading Mr. Bradford Price’s elegant example of “ad hominem” attacks run amok. Just wow! E.P. HUBERT Rockbridge County
