Letters to the Editor
anonny
Published Letters: 124 Editor's Choice: 13
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Nice
[Read the article: Clark: "What does John McCain really believe?"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was skeptical about Clark as a VP at first, but having read more about him he really is close to perfect.
We know about his military background, but most of us were concerned about his skills as a campaigner. To be honest, all I had were memories of 2004 to go on. However, like most bright people he learns and improves with experience -- he's been assisting Democratic campaigns for the past 4 years. The 2008 Wes Clark is a far better campaigner, debater, and interview subject than the 2004 version. (Even then, he did win a primary, Oklahoma, in 2004 so it's not like he was incompetent back then.) He also seems to like campaigning, unlike (for example) Webb. He's boned up in his biggest area of weakness -- domestic policy -- and now can hold his own.
Finally, and very importantly, Clark was a very strong and active Hillary supporter until she dropped out of the campaign.
White (to balance the ticket), Southern (ditto), good campaign experience, outstanding military leadership, solid Democratic credentials on policy, firmly in the Clinton camp, had the correct stand on the Iraq war, able to hold his own with pundits. And his strengths counter McCain's mythical strengths and show just how weak McCain really is. Hmmmm.
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Don't be so quick to judge
[Read the article: Debating debates]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hillary Clinton formally bows out on June 7th and McCain wants the first debate on June 12th? What the hell?
It's best for Obama's team not to fall into the trap of debating the debates -- this is not a winning issue for either side and only serves as a distraction. But let's understand that McCain's offer was loaded.
First, the first proposed "town hall" was pre-arranged by McCain and designed to give Obama little time to prepare -- at a time when Obama has his hands full transitioning from primary to general campaign. McCain's strategy was apparently to set up the first town hall meeting on terms highly unfavorable to Obama (and Fox has confirmed that the audience was stacked with McCain supporters -- we can be sure the questions and moderator would have been equally skewed) in hopes he'd fall into the trap. He didn't.
Second, between now and the end of August there are only 11 weeks -- take away 1 week for the Democratic convention and that leaves one "town hall" per week, each which would require days of preparation. That's a lot of campaign time, espeically when you are trying to build a 50-state campaign. You might argue that would be a tax on both candidate's time, but Obama has proven that he is much more effective at time managment -- just look how McCain wasted the three months he had after he got his nomination.
Third, Obama's proposal for debate topics -- one economy, one foreign policy -- is entirely reasonable. That's a tradition that goes back to Lincoln-Douglas, and even was used in the 1976 presidential debates. It's unfortunate that we lost this tradition in recent years, as the open-topic style of debate has caused both a loss in the depth of analysis and too much time given over to minor issues. The one-topic debate favors Obama, who understands issues in depth, over McCain.
So, what we have here are two competing proposals. Obama's 3 + 2 proposal favors Obama, McCain's 3 + 10 proposal favors McCain. Not a surprise.
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Bikes and cars -- like oil and water
[Read the article: The wheel thing]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Long ago I cycled to work. Now I work from home, and frequently bike on mountain trails, but I no longer bike where I have to share the road with cars. Although I was that unusual cyclist who actually stopped at red lights and slowed or stopped at stop signs -- and I took longer routes through minor streets and avoided thoroughfares to the degree possible -- I still had several near-death encounters with distracted motorists. In the end I have concluded it's just not worth the risk. Now I drive my hybrid to the trailhead and start biking from there.
My conclusion is that bikes and cars are not meant to share the road. City planning needs to be rethought to give bikes their own space. In a previous post on Salon I mentioned Sunriver, Oregon, as an example of a town where bikes had their own trails literally everywhere. Except in the highest density urban areas, it should always be possible to design in dedicated bike trails (to be shared with pedestrians, dogs, and even horses if that is appropriate for that area). In the highest density area there still may be good options for bikes -- such as repurposing alleyways -- depending on the layout.
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Good suggestions
[Read the article: What's wrong with Obama's FightTheSmears.com]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hope you've passed these on to the Obama campaign.
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Watch UPS not FedEx
[Read the article: The FedEx economy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As you say, FedEx relies predominantly on planes, a business model that was innovative 25 years ago but is no longer.
UPS will be more interesting. A few years ago they moved a large amount of their shipping to dedicated trains that hot-shot across the US -- coast-to-coast in less than 48 hours. This gave them huge cost savings but also insulated them somewhat from fuel costs, as fuel is a much smaller proportion of train shipping than any other form of shipping.
I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those shippers who left FedEx went instead to UPS.
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How about instead ...
[Read the article: A "fitting monument" for Dubya]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... renaming the Hayward fault to "George W Bush's Fault".
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SJP again?
[Read the article: Lady superstars are totally marriageable after all]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gwen Stefani, Sarah Jessica Parker, Charlize Theron, Heidi Klum, Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore and Courteney Cox, and Susan Sarandon
Can someone tell me why Sarah Jessica Parker is in this list?
I still don't get it.