How long did it take George Bush (whom the opinion writer has professed in the past to admire) to make a public statement on shoe bomber Richard Reid? Six days. Did the writer complain back then? For some reason I believe probably not.

He intimates Obama doesn't take terrorism seriously without offering any real evidence of this other than to regurgitate the standard right-wing talking points, including the accusation the president won't even use the words "terrorist" or "terrorist attack". This is an outright lie.

During Obama's radio address on the attempted Christmas Day bombing, he used the word "terrorist" or a variation at least six times. It seems strange to me that Obama's detractors would make such a baseless and actually silly claim, so easily refuted, about such a serious matter. The writer should have at least troubled himself to look at the actual transcript of the speech instead of just recycling what other right-wing pundits have been saying. I guess it's easier to write a column if you don't bother to fact-check while writing it.

He wrote, " He didn’t grasp the seriousness of the situation, and he sped through a weak public statement that left too much unsaid so he could get back out on the golf course." Now, whether the president's statement was weak or strong is a matter of opinion. But the writer's implication that Obama was only interested in resuming his vacation is amusing, since he staunchly supported George W. Bush, who was infamous for taking regular (and lengthy) vacations even very early on in his presidency Oh, the hypocrisy.

He even accuses the president of giving the war on terror "back seat" status so he can focus on his "radical" domestic agenda. Again, we have an accusation being made with absolutely nothing to back it up. This seems to be his writing style – sling lots of mud and hope something sticks – reminiscent of other right-wing pundits like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

I will defend to the death this opinion writer's right to criticize whomever he wants to criticize. Unfortunately, when a writer is blinded by his or her own bias, it's all too easy to put words to paper without doing a thorough check of the actual facts of the topic at hand. This columnist is a somewhat competent writer, and it's a shame he chooses to throw around half-truths and misstatements of fact in his zeal to attack anything and everything Obama has done (or hasn't done).

I was a graphic artist and as such did not work with Tom on a daily basis. However, I also wrote an opinion column for many months back in 2006, and thus got to know Tom a lot better as he worked with me to hone my writing skills and get my message across in limited editorial space.

This was an exciting time for me and Tom really enjoyed the often heated public responses to my unashamedly biased approach to politics, religion and local issues. He sometimes joked to me that page A-4 of the Thursday edition, which was when my column ran, seemed to be the only page of the paper read on those days. This was when the BDT had an electronic message board tied to the online edition, and we would really get a kick out of the discussion my columns generated.

Tom even told me that he would sometimes receive extremely nasty emails or phone calls concerning something I had written. But to his credit, he would run what I wrote and let the chips fall where they may. He always said that feedback of any type meant people were genuinely interested in the topic at hand, even if they didn’t agree with the conclusions of the writer.

Thanks, Tom, for allowing me the opportunity to connect with our readers, and for your always steady hand at the wheel as we went through ownership and staff changes. Through it all, Tom never lost his vision of what the BDT should be, and of the responsibilities of the news and editorial staff.

More than anyone else, Tom WAS the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. The paper will continue, and no doubt someone will ably step into his position and carry onward. However, it simply won’t be the same newspaper without Tom sitting in his office on the third floor.