Sound bites are only way to get coverage

After reading Duncan Teater's column "To Green or not to Green" (Oct. 23), I wonder if he knows anything at all about politics, elections or the media. First, he assumes in his column, which was just one big scare tactic, that Bush is a conservative, pro-lifer, isolationist. Bush is not an isolationist; that is absurd! Bush's Web site states his foreign policy goals would be, "accomplished by concentrating on enduring national interests and by resisting the temptation to withdraw from the world." \nTeater continues his storybook absolutes in saying Gore is a liberal, pro-choicer, internationalist! Teater spouts mind-numbing, counter-productive polarities. Now we get to abortion. Gore has voted repeatedly against pro-choice bills such as one to provide assistance to impoverished women. Bush has said the abortion issue will not be a factor in choosing Supreme Court Justices, and he has only come out against late-term abortions. Again, they aren't that far apart. Gore a liberal? Gore has lead the most conservative movement, the Democratic Leadership Council, within the Democratic Party for the last 15 years, and Bush is no Pat Buchanan.\nNow let's get to the media. Teater claims Ralph Nader is a sound bite fiend. First off, what, then, are Bush and Gore? Have you read a newspaper or watched TV lately? It's a sound bite factory! I worked with Nader this summer and, believe me, unless he gave them these stupid sound bites, his name didn't get into the news. When he served up the sound bites, Nader got coverage, when he didn't … well, he didn't get coverage.\nTeater needs to quit listening to his blind-loyal gut and wake up to the evidence: voting records, policy support, direct contextual quotes and other concretes.\nFinally, Teater doesn't understand how presidents are elected. Whoever wins the majority of the Electoral College wins the election, not the popular vote. In 43 states, either Bush or Gore has taken hold decisively, meaning a vote for Nader is not a vote for Bush. By the way, if "a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush" isn't the most misleading scare tactic sound bite around, then I don't know what is!