Letters

A Crowded Field Hits the Campaign Trail

The 2008 U.S. presidential race is off to an early start, with many fresh, diverse contenders entering the marathon to the White House. Readers stressed the importance of a concrete agenda to clear the toughest hurdle--how to handle Iraq--as they anticipate a historic dash to the finish

All the candidates, regardless of party affiliation, should know something about the next 648 days [Feb. 5]. They will be rejected if they engage in the personal attacks and name calling that we have witnessed in past elections. We need realistic solutions to the real problems. They should fire their campaign managers and speechwriters if all they want to do is tear down the other candidates or propose pie-in-the-sky nostrums that haven't a prayer of becoming law. We want character and intelligence. Otherwise, they should drop out now and save us all a lot of irritation.

WANDA JONES San Francisco

TIME is already reporting on the 2008 presidential race? What's next, a March issue about Christmas? Considering your dubious success rate with prognostication--such as the severity of the Y2K problem and the prospect for Howard Dean's presidential bid--you should either leave the fortune telling to others or upgrade your crystal ball.

JOE FRANK Scottsdale, Ariz.

Why can't the U.S., a great nation of 300 million people, produce any impressive presidential candidates with real opinions, true leadership qualities and world-class stature?

JEAN DEROUGE Gainesville, Fla.

President George W. Bush has lowered the standard of the presidency so much that everyone feels qualified to hold the office.

BABAK ROBOUBI Chevy Chase, Md.

We should be opposed in principal to a legacy presidency. European settlers in the New World risked life, limb and fortune to escape the monarchies that held power within the royal families. The Adamses, Harrisons, Roosevelts and Bushes have given us ample experience with all-in-the-family presidencies. With the notable exception of the Roosevelts, legacy Presidents have been mediocre. There are plenty of qualified candidates in the race with names other than Clinton or Bush. Let's elect one of them next year.

CRAIG CRANSTON Williamsburg, Va.

Much has been made of recent polls showing that among black voters Hillary Clinton is favored by a large margin over Barack Obama. The (mostly white) talking heads have twisted themselves into knots trying to explain it. Let me help them out. We in the black community know full well that not enough white Americans will go into the voting booth and pull the lever for a black man to be the President, so we don't want to throw our votes away on an underdog black candidate. And 90% of black voters do not vote Republican because, while we might not always know who is for us, we definitely know who is against us.

VERNON S. BURTON San Leandro, Calif.

You quoted Senator Chuck Hagel as saying, "I don't think there's any point in going back and reviewing or replaying the bad decisions" related to the war in Iraq. I strongly disagree. Have the candidates who voted for the Iraq war demonstrated good decision making? Why did they vote for war? Did they evaluate Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's assertion that Iraq could have a nuclear weapon so soon? Did they not consider the possibility that removing Saddam Hussein from power might unleash a civil war among Iraq's intensely hostile ethnic groups? American voters need to understand what motivated those ayes in Congress.

ELIZABETH TERRY Palm Coast, Fla.

Agreeing to Disagree

Michael Kinsley made some excellent points in his Viewpoint "In Defense of Partisan Bickering" [Feb. 5]. To his list of what Americans want, I would add that Americans want politicians to stop the negative campaign ads. I want to hear each candidate's stance on issues and ideas for the future, not demonization using distortion or misinformation. From Donald Segretti's campaign of dirty tricks in the employ of Richard Nixon to the Swift Boat Veterans' attack on Senator John Kerry, such tactics have debased and degraded the electoral process and turned voters off. Can't we have a campaign with integrity?

JANE DINEEN Hackensack, N.J.

Kinsley is right to defend partisanship, but he misses the higher ground. In U.S. politics, the winner takes all, ideologues and hacks supplant statesmen, and reputation and access can be bought. One needs to look no further than lobbyist-lined K Street to understand why.

TOM FORMANEK Waverly, N.Y.

This Land Is Whose Land?

Your article "In The Land Of The Lonely" [Feb. 5] reported that the nearly 300,000 Jews who live in the West Bank have responded to hundreds of murders, maimings and kidnappings by throwing stones and name calling. While your article designated the area as "Arab territory," the Arab world perceives all the land of Israel as theirs, with no room for Jews. When Israel retreated from Gaza, the Arabs there established a well-armed terrorist infrastructure that has been raining missiles down on Israeli residential areas ever since. How could anyone reasonably expect the Israelis to withdraw from more territory?

SCOTT DAVID LIPPE Fair Lawn, N.J.

Your important story about the illegal settlement outpost of Migron, in the West Bank, erroneously referred to Peace Now as a "pacifist group." The organization was established by Israeli soldiers and has supported some Israeli military measures, including Israel's military response to Hizballah gunmen who crossed from Lebanon into Israel to kidnap two soldiers in the summer of 2006. Our objection to the construction and expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories does not stem from a pacifist philosophy but from a pragmatic conviction: such settlements undermine Israel's security and the efforts to achieve a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

ORI NIR, SPOKESMAN AMERICANS FOR PEACE NOW Washington

You bought into the naive belief that if only Israel would remove all settlements in the West Bank, peace would ensue. The Gaza experience forever debunked that myth. Peace will come only when the Palestinians acknowledge Israel's right to exist.

(RABBI) LARRY GEVIRTZ New York City

Imagining a New NATO

Walter Isaacson's proposal for a mideast Antiterrorism Organization (MATO) [Feb. 5] is such a simple yet sound idea. The U.S. has squandered much of its soft power--the good will of so much of the world after 9/11--and is bumping up against the limits of its hard power. A MATO is much needed, sooner rather than later.

QUINCY SCOTT San Antonio, Texas

Cruel and Unusual?

RE your report on the psychological effects of super-maximum-security prisons [Feb. 5]: I spent time at a federal correctional institution, and although it has been some nine years since I was in solitary confinement, I am still negatively affected by the experience. It has impaired every aspect of my daily life. I can't imagine how it affects people who are incarcerated that way for longer periods.

JEFF H. REYNOLDS Dallas

As a psychologist intimately familiar with the research on sensory deprivation, I find it ironic that some penal authorities are trying to exclude the mentally ill from solitary confinement. Then in the next breath, these sadists are systematically driving 20,000 people crazy by severely limiting stimulation.

STEVE CUMMINGS Seattle

Why is hard labor good enough for people making minimum wage but not good enough for those who are a drain on society? Hard labor would not only be a good deterrent, it would also provide the prisoners with a sense of self-worth and a day so filled with activity that all they would want to do at night is hit the sack.

GREG GRASMEHR Los Angeles

We have heard so much about the injustices in prisons in Iraq and at Guantanamo. Where is the outrage at the treatment of people in our prisons here in the U.S.? We will be safer only when former prisoners can function productively. This can be realized only by humane treatment, education and rehabilitation.

SHIRLEY WHITE Decatur, Mich.

This article once again tries to decide if the purpose of incarceration is to rehabilitate or punish prisoners. Its purpose is neither. We lock criminals away to protect ourselves.

FRED HERRMANN Terre Haute, Ind.

High Praise for Peyton

"Why we get riled about Peyton" [Feb. 5] cast Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning in an unfairly negative light. Manning's opponents critique him off the field because he works endlessly to beat their teams on the field. Manning does wonders for both Indianapolis (through his PeyBack Foundation) and his hometown of New Orleans. He may be overexposed, but he is a model player that the NFL--and I--can be proud of.

ADAM WALTS Bloomington, Ind.

I fail to see the humor in rooting against Manning because he's so talented. So often our culture tears down its heroes. We want them to fail because we don't measure up to their standards. In an age when anyone who owns a PC can be a writer, or when anyone can become the next American Idol just from being on TV, we should celebrate true talent.

JEFF JURGENSMIER Roanoke, Va.

Venerating Virgil

RE "Virgil Goes Viral" [Feb. 5]: as a high school Latin student, I am thrilled to see the classics getting recognition in new translations, histories, biographies, movies and TV shows. While the classics were for centuries a key part of "proper" education, they have been somewhat forgotten by our modern culture. This negligence is seen in dwindling enrollment in classics courses and, most unfortunately, dwindling funding for classics programs and the students enrolled in them. The classics are a key to how our civilization was shaped.

RYAN SHEDD West Chester, Pa.