Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 151 Editor's Choice: 4
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No need for more policy wonks
[Read the article: Looking past Pennsylvania]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Washington is full of people who fill their heads and their writing tablets with details about policies, Hillary Clinton is one of the best of these. We do not need any more of these, especially since Obama agrees with Clinton on the details of all the major policy questions facing the nation.
What we need in the country is someone who is willing to propose a differ way of doing business. We need someone who is willing to look across the false cultural divides that have prevented genuine action on the various crises that beset us. We need someone who thinks creatively about how to make Washington function effectively.
Barack Obama has made the effort to think imaginatively and with intelligent insight about how to get things moving forward. Yet another wonkish recitation of a list of policy proposals is not going to get the job done. Such a listing may impress some people but it is pandering through empty speechifying.
Obama is offering real solutions, his trouble is that since they are addressing problems of attitude and imagination they are harder to quantify. The politician who spouts old-style rhetoric full of mere policy points will always win with the unimaginative.
But a president who hears the life stories of the American people, thinks creatively about their problems, has the intellectual skills to translate these experiences and ideas into compelling sentances, and has the power to arouse the people to pressure others is a president who will make changes in the way Washington works. This is Barack Obama's gift and this is what we need.
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Clintons get served
[Read the article: Clyburn hits Clintons on tactics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rep. Clyburn's stinging comments about the scurrilous campaign run by the Clintons should serve notice about the thinking of the super delegates as they look toward the summer and fall.
What they see is Sen. Clinton clinging to an otherworldly dream of denying all the math and overturning all the rules to enable her to win the nomination. They see her trying her only remaining gambit, dragging Sen. Obama through the mud, in order to sully a good man and make him "unelectible." They cringe everytime Bill Clinton utters another fatuous and self-serving observation that alienates yet another part of the Democratic constituency.
The repellant tactics and message of the Clintons are making it easier for the super delegates to get off the fence and line up for Obama. Three (or is it five?) more supers have signed on for him since the PA primary.
So yes, Sen. Clinton should continue in the race until the 'bitter' end. Her legacy is tarnished beyond reclamation.
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Fine reading material
[Read the article: Quote of the day]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...for the super delegates. I hope that all of the remaining undecided supers take time to read and absorb the position of the arch-conservative Bill Kristol on Sen. Clinton's candidacy. If they are still on the fence after reading this manifesto of the hopes and dreams of the far-right wing, then they need to turn in their Democratic party membership cards.
The GOP's fondest dream is to have Hillary Clinton to beat up on this fall.
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Obama under the bus
[Read the article: What should Obama do about Rev. Jeremiah Wright?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The outrageous behavior of Rev. Wright these past few days is matched only by the irresponsible behavior of the media which has given him a platform. This is a vain, arrogant, befuddled, and misguided man whose only cause is his own ego. He is profoundly jealous of Obama. He has bared himself for all to see in these latest rantings.
In this way, in fact Wright is much like Hillary Clinton. They both believe that Obama is a young, untried upstart who has not properly acknowledged his lower place in the pecking order. Like Clinton, Wright believes that Obama should have waited his turn before trying for a prominent place on the national stage.
This is a difficult but paradoxically good thing for Sen.Obama. The bizarre behavior of Wright clearly establishes how far apart the two men are. Obama is nothing like Wright in temperment, outlook, personal politics, historical analysis, or ethics. The continued attempt by the Republicans and supporters of Sen. Clinton to associate Wright with Obama will fall apart because the differences between the two have now been established with scorching clarity by the rabid Wright.
After this weekend's media extravaganza, only the pathetically partisan or the racist will continue to insist that somehow Wright = Obama.
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Thank you, Joan
[Read the article: I was wrong about Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For your clear-eyed analysis. It is indeed certain that Rev. Wright has been offended and insulted by the upstart Sen. Obama and is trying his best to derail Obama's historic campaign. Wright is egomaniacal and jealous, a dangerous combination in any situation and certainly Obama needs to proceed with caution. Wright believes that this campaign is about himself and he has established with a bright light that he is nothing like Obama. Wright revels in his intemperance, in his maniacal insults and his illogic. He is poorly read, weak in historical analysis, shallow in his religious understanding and unkempt in his language and thinking.
Obama is the polar opposite of Wright in all of these things. Wright is certainly jealous of Obama's success and his potential. He wants the younger man to step to the back of the bus in favor of his elders or else Wright will cheerfully throw him under the wheels. Sabotage is too sophisticated a term to characterize what Wright has in mind for Obama; he wants to obliterate him and take out any chance America has for genuine reform.
Any one who continues to try to equate Obama with Wright is a partisan of either the GOP or of Sen. Clinton.
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Excellent
[Read the article: Obama "outraged" by Wright]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sen. Obama's direct and heartfelt denunciation of the outrageous and egomaniacal Rev. Wright is excellent. This brings a breath of fresh air to this whole fetid Democratic primary campaign. Obama is truly a remarkable figure in American politics. His candor, and directness is exactly what is needed in the White House after 16 years of deception, lies, and hypocrisy from both parties.
Cynics will sneer of course, but this guy is courageous beyond measure.