It's interesting to read the various letters about the upcoming nomination/election.I think it would be wise to take all these predictions about Hillary with a grain of salt. No doubt she is a person who evokes strong feelings. In my family we are split- I like Hillary and my wife doesn't. Yet I know this: she will vote for Hillary as will I, if H gets the nomination.

Writers to this website generally have strong feelings about Hillary Clinton's likability, but if we look back at the various elections(I've voted since 1960) the likability factor has mixed results. George Bush won with likability (what else did he have?) but what seems to matter most is having a savvy candidate. Kerry and Gore were almost politically tone deaf and could have easily won have they been savvy enough to respond to the smears.

Reagan and Clinton had likability; Nixon didn't; Carter -who knows? I think it still comes down to being a smart politician and having a very good campaign.

I think any Democrat will win in '08 if they meet these two criteria. Isn't it interesting that Hillary Clinton has increased her lead over Obama and Edwards despite all of her high negatives? And this lead has come after all the Democratic debates. I do not deny her negatives (I live with someone who is quite articulate about them) but I think we make a big mistake if we don't also recognize the effective way she has managed to win over the people who have actually heard her speak.

I don't believe the ABC contingent (anyone but Clinton) is going to prevent either her nomination and election.Now this is just my opinion- we'll see.

I think it's critical that we view this election in the context of the times. It could well be that Hillary Clinton couldn't win or even get the nomination if the Bush administration had not been so incredibly inept. But . . . they have been. That makes all the difference in the world.

For many businesses and politicians there's a powerful misconception about marketing.

The correct concept of marketing is simple: have a good product or service and then tell the right people, in the right way about your product or service. Notice I didn't say lie about it, or spin it, or hype it.

Many people think that the marketing process is the product. It's not; the product is the product.

The problem is not that Ari Fleisher is running ads. It is simply the fact that his ads are lies. No amount of lipstick can obscure the fact that a pig is still a pig.

Having just read Judith Mayer's New Yorker article about the American torture policy as run by the C.I. A., and seen Charles Ferguson's new documentary No End In Sight leads me to the inescapable conclusion that the American management of Iraq after the invasion, and our torture polices are both dismal failures and inhumane as well.

When Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, says that he wouldn't want any U. S. citizen to go through what we do to others, I am convinced that we have lost our way. No longer can we say that our policies and values should be respected and emulated. We have become a laughingstock. What a legacy.

For a group such as the APA, which claims, I am sure, to be interested in the well being of all people to fail to come out with a wholesale condemnation of our torture policies would be a deep and bitter disappointment.

It certainly shows how far we have fallen from having good and decent values if we can't declare just how heinous these torture practices are. And if we can't depend on our most respected institutions to speak up for what is right we have sunk pretty low.

Being a liberal and an idealist, I find that Rove, Bush& Co. are the antithesis of the ideals this country was founded on. Using government for serving the people and providing support where no other support exists - that is the value and purpose of having political power.

Yet it would be naive to assume that some could not be entranced by power itself and use the power for their own short sighted goals. They have betrayed the purpose they should have upheld; they have failed to meet the needs of the people and uphold the sacred trust given them by the American people. They were given the keys to the treasury and they stole all the money to build big forts and big houses.

The real tragedy of this administration is that there is no shame and no sense of responsibility. I fear their legacy is further disregard for the true benefits that government can provide, low regard for democratic principles and a profound loss of respect from the world community.

I grieve over the immense betrayal this administration has visited on our country and the world. I look at our behavior at home and abroad, and I feel, most of all, sadness. I ask myself, how could we have done this; it is almost beyond imagining.