Sometimes, another's style of commentary is just too good to pass up. So, with apologies to comedian Bill Maher, it's time for "new rules":

NEW RULE: Stop playing the experience card.

The candidates still in the running for the White House and their supporters have been making "experience" a key criterion for voters to consider when deciding whom they want to walk into the Oval Office on Jan. 20.

Guess what? The only experience Sens. John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have for the job is that they can give speeches and answer questions at news conferences. In fact, not one candidate who tossed a hat into the ring for this presidential-election cycle has any experience to be president.

The commander in chief has more important duties than merely running a huge bureaucracy and dealing with a balky legislative branch. To him or her falls the fate of the nation. To him or her falls the decision whether to seek war or peace. To him or her falls the responsibility to maintain this nation's credibility in its relations with other nations. And, to him or her falls the grave task of what to do when handed the presidential emergency satchel, also known as the Nuclear Football, and told: "America's under attack."

That is not the type of experience one can pick up as a congressman, senator, governor or crusading activist. No, only one person can ever claim to have the necessary experience to be president — an incumbent running for re-election, and the 2004 presidential election showed that even an incumbent doesn't necessarily gain experience on the job.

NEW RULE: If you want the truth, delete all those forwarded e-mail messages you get.

You've seen these attempts to cast aspersions and, thus, to sway public opinion on people in the public eye through the use of innuendo, misinformation and outright lies.

So, for the record, Obama is not Muslim, was not sworn into office using the Quran and does not have a radical Muslim for a stepfather. But, he does recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Hillary Clinton did not refuse to see a contingent of Gold Star mothers, an allegation that American Gold Star Mothers Inc. vociferously refuted, nor did she help Black Panthers get off with an easy sentence in a murder trial, because she did not participate in the trial in any form.

More members of the American military died during President Bush's time in office than did during Bill Clinton's. The figures being sent around overstate deaths for the Clinton years and understate deaths during the Bush years. During Clinton's presidency, 7,500 members of the armed forces died. The number of deaths decreased each year from 1,213 in 1993 to 758 in 2000. By the end of 2006, the last year figures were available, nearly 8,800 had died during Bush's presidency. Add in last year's deaths from Iraq and those who died elsewhere in the world, and the death toll under Bush's watch comes perilously close to, if not topping, 10,000.

If you want the real scoop about the truth of those e-mails you receive, check them out on Snopes.com, http://www.snopes.com/. Once you know the truth, you can delete them or, better yet, reply to the senders with the link from Snopes.com to show the senders just how worthless these e-mails are.

NEW RULE: If you really want to help the American economy, end the war in Iraq.

The economy might be in the toilet, but the government check is in the mail. The Bush administration hopes that when you receive your economic-stimulus check, you'll rush right out and practice some good, old-fashioned conspicuous consumption.

Buy why spend the money on a surround-sound system made in Japan, or an iPhone manufactured in China, or as a down payment on a car imported from Korea?

Why not do something that truly helps this nation: Donate a good portion, if not all, of your economic-stimulus check to organizations that help veterans, especially disabled veterans, especially those veterans coming home from the war in Iraq and discovering that the government that lagged in supplying them the necessary materiel to fight the war has now lagged in providing needed healthcare and rehabilitation.

Then, if you really want to help jump-start this nation's economy, vote in as president someone who will go after the biggest drain on the economic and military health of this nation — the war in Iraq.

— Richard Larsen is a deputy opinion page editor at The Star. His e-mail address is rlarsen@VenturaCountyStar.com.