To paraphrase Mark Twain, “Figures don’t lie, but politicians can skip telling the whole truth.”

This is well illustrated by Ronna McDaniel’s commentary in the Sentinel (“Mainers deserve better than failed attempts at leadership by Democrats,” Aug. 5). She is highly critical of Gov. Mills’ leadership in the battle against the COVID pandemic. She is most likely using data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. We can all look at that data.

She starts out by pointing out that “17 of the top 20 states for coronavirus-lost jobs recovered are led by Republican governors.” Why did she choose to report “jobs recovered”? That is because Maine is already in the top 16 states in the country in terms of jobs preserved.

As she points out, Maine has an unemployment rate of 4.8%. The 50 states’ individual unemployment rates range from 7.9% to 2.5% and average 5.3%. Maine’s economy outperforms that of 34 states on this measure of employment.

The bigger picture, of course, includes the success of the fight — deaths prevented. A search of two websites, Becker’s Hospital Review and Statista, show Maine with the lowest or fourth-lowest mortality rate from COVID in the country.

Under Janet Mills’ leadership Maine has had one of the lowest COVID mortality rates in the country while experiencing one of the lower unemployment rates.

When people use selected facts and pepper their comments with emotional terminology like “overzealous” and “far left (or right)” they rarely present a comprehensive view of the problem at hand. These tactics are used when you do not have a good argument to make about the issue at hand. Voters deserve better.

Although there are valid issues worthy of discussion here, Ronna McDaniel has not led us down that path.

Janet Mills has provided exceptional leadership against COVID-19. We are lucky to have her as governor.

 

Roger Renfrew

Skowhegan

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