Letters to the editor

Turf war

Switching sides after witnessing Clinton's bloodlust

Editor, The Times:

I live in Washington state. After much soul-searching, I decided to give my support to you, Sen. Hillary Clinton, based on your family's past service and your stand on health care. I even volunteered to be a delegate for you.

Now as the campaign has continued, I find myself regretting my decision. Your comments last week regarding you and Sen. John McCain being prepared to be commander in chief, and Sen. Barack Obama having only a speech from 2002, was the corker for me ["Debate rages over foreign-crisis experience," Times, Politics, March 7].

As soon as I heard it, I took your bumper sticker off my car. You and your campaign have continued since then to make appalling choices in your bloodlust to be the winner at all costs. It seems it must be you or McCain.

Shame on you. Not only have you broken my heart as a longtime Clinton supporter, you have sullied your place in history as the first viable female candidate for president.

I will be contacting my precinct captain regarding my obligation as a delegate. Should you be the party's nominee, I pray that Sen. Obama or someone else runs as a third party.

I openly weep at these turns of events.

— Melody Rae (second-grade teacher), Yelm

The empty suit

I work in a school. If the person who is in charge of administering this institution had no more actual experience at his job than Barack Obama has for the job he is seeking, I would be concerned about money, student goals, curriculum, etc. How do you justify that experience is not necessary?

Several African-American superdelegates pledged their support to Hillary Clinton, then switched to Obama, in some cases, because early on, they didn't think an African American could win. What happened to integrity (it's OK to go back on a promise) and to this is not being about race?

Obama wants to end the war in Iraq by pulling out and, at the same time, enhance our image abroad. How can you do both?

Hope was the basis for the beginning of this country; however, the Founders had read and studied extensively about government, gone to other countries and discussed it endlessly. What good is hope without substance?

Obama says he would have voted against the Iraq war. He wasn't even there to do that and has not always corrected this false impression. In the Senate, how many financial-support bills for the war did he vote against?

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., for one, gave his support to Obama because he didn't like "Bill's tactics" — hardly a ringing endorsement. What does Kennedy support about what Obama is going to do? Obama is easy, exciting listening, but when you leave his presence, what are you left with?

Obama promised at KeyArena really what he would do (all things most people want, nothing new) in four years. This would be a hard promise for anyone to keep. Was Obama really promising this or caught up in his own rhetoric?

I did vote for Clinton and some of these questions could be asked of her. In one way or another, she has answered them, not always to my satisfaction.

I took 40-plus students to the Obama rally. Could I vote for Obama at some point? It's possible, but not now!

— Penelope Wagoner, Seattle

Backed up by firepower

Barack Obama invites citizens to participate in the politics that determines how they will live, while mindful of the responsibility a president has to make decisions for us when there is no time to take a vote. He is a liberal who recognizes that business is the engine of our economy, but the engine cannot go anywhere without labor; and one should never be rewarded at the expense of the other.

I voted for Hillary Clinton in the Washington primary, but if I had it to do over, I would vote for Obama, having reluctantly concluded that although Hillary would make a great president (and goodness knows, it's way past time our country had a woman president), this moment in history belongs to Obama, who has, in addition to Hillary's intelligence and drive, a fire that spreads to the rest of us and makes us believe we can do great things.

— Ann Adams, Oak Harbor

One hard-boiled cookie

In February an old friend and I argued Obama vs. Clinton. I suggested if he compared the two on paper, subtracting Barack Obama's charisma and oratorical skills, that he couldn't claim Obama had better qualifications. My brilliant friend was silent.

Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island resisted Obama's momentum. Did voters develop buyer's remorse?

The press and pundits have repeatedly counted Hillary Clinton out. Some seem apoplectic, demanding she quit the race ASAP.

Yet Clinton is a fighter. She's intelligent, articulate, compassionate and personable. As first lady, she didn't bake cookies — she fought for health-care reform. She traveled to more than 80 countries, working with international leaders. Later, she received high praise as a senator.

Obama's camp wants Clinton to surrender. Ironically, Obama is compared to John F. Kennedy, yet it was the superdelegates who gave the nomination to JFK at the 1960 convention.

Neither of these gifted candidates can win without the superdelegates. Let the voters vote across the land, and the superdelegates vote their conscience.

As Democratic National Party Chairman Howard Dean remarked, whatever happens during the primary season is patty-cake compared to the general election.

— Bambi Lin Litchman, Tacoma

Eliot mess

The untouchables

Let me get this straight: New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer gets caught canoodling with some goluptious lady of the evening and then has to face the prospect of resigning his office ["Prostitution sting rocks New York's 'Mr. Clean,' " page one, March 11].

Meanwhile, we have an ongoing display of outright malversation emanating from the Oval Office, which has resulted in two murderous and costly wars, ever-widening social disparities, increasing environmental degradation, and economic chaos. Yet George Bush and Dick Cheney — though they are loathed by many at home and around the world — remain unruffled in their positions of power and influence.

Surely Spitzer was stupid to engage in an activity that was bound to cause a seismic rent in his political career if he ever got caught. But his transgression pales utterly before the systemic domestic and global disasters wrought by the Bush-Cheney cabal.

— Joe Martin, Seattle

Almost got away

In the front-page article about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's prostitution scandal, one has to read all the way to the end to get the first hint of his political party affiliation — which can only mean one thing: he's not a Republican.

— Charles Levine, Redmond