Your diatribe against President Barack Obama on July 27, the editorial, “President dodges his obligation to lead,” was unfair and uncalled-for.

The president offered Republicans several plans in the debt ceiling negotiations, every one of which they have rejected, and on two occasions John Boehner walked out of discussions with the president.

What kind of leadership does that show? In his actions, Boehner clearly played to his own electorate in hopes of keeping his position as speaker of the House.

Your accusation that the president cares only about getting re-elected was deeply biased.

Think about it for a moment: How can a president lead when the opposition party actively and overtly thwarts his every attempt to be a leader?

Mitch McConnell told the whole country last year that his first priority was to see that Obama is a one-term president, and his Republican colleagues clearly have adopted that same goal. Their shameful actions in this whole debt ceiling debate had no purpose other than to embarrass the president.

Did Boehner and McConnell and Eric Cantor really think Americans wanted a short-term solution that will put us through this same nasty dog fight again a few months from now? If so, they need a long vacation in a room with rubber walls.

Your editorial placed you squarely in that Republican camp and erased all confidence in the newspaper’s ability provide fair and unbiased political commentary.

David L. Mitchell

Madison