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Thursday, Mar. 20, 2008
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A Campaign Comeback
Hillary and Bill Clinton might be "Ready to Rumble" the Democratic Party right into a loss in November [March 17]. Her plan is to convince the Democratic leadership that Barack Obama is unelectable. But if she fails to get the nomination, she might end up persuading swing voters to support John McCain in the general election. Maybe then she would become part of the Republican strategy team.
Paula Rantz,
Palo Alto, California

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Karen Tumulty and David Von Drehle talk about how Hillary is obsessed with winning and has been mounting relentless attacks against Obama. That's the case with any candidate trying to catch up. Didn't Obama attack Clinton with the same intensity when she was considered the front runner? Winning is Obama's goal too. Neither candidate is more innocent than the other — it's just how the game is played. No need to scream bloody murder when Clinton is on the offensive.
Brenda Huang
San Jose, California

Clinton's image on the cover obstructed them in TIME, leaving the word TIE above her head. Great hidden message!
Ric Timmers,
Bear, Delaware

There's a huge difference between being a fighter and being a leader. During the last Democratic debate, I wondered what would have happened if Clinton had been President during a critical situation like the Cuban missile crisis. Would we have had nuclear warfare because she would have tried to show how tough she is? I'd bet Obama would have acted as J.F.K. did, carefully considering his options and finding a way for the Soviets to save face and back away, thereby getting the U.S. what it wanted while preventing a nuclear holocaust. Clinton has not shown she understands that the presidency demands leadership above all, not simply a pugnacious personality.
Mary C. Helf,
Flourtown, Pennsylvania

Energy Gets a Boost
"Not a Watt to be Wasted" attracted my interest with its idea of using bridge vibrations to generate electricity [March 17]. A far greater source of energy is the ocean's tides. Off the coast of New England, tides rise and fall up to 4 m twice a day. How about generating electricity from floating pistons on the ocean? Unlike dams, floating pistons would be friendly to marine life; they would not silt up bays and would be far less expensive to construct. Just north of Maine, in the Bay of Fundy, a moon tide can be 15 m. If intermittent vibrations on a bridge are being used to generate 20 microwatts to 120 microwatts, why not think bigger?
Robert F. Bourque,
North Port, Florida

Put a collector of vibrations on airplanes and the roofs over which they fly upon takeoffs and landings. I'd like to see vibrations collected under waterfalls and on bus routes. Teenagers could collect vibrations from their music, and drummers could collect the vibrations from their instruments.
Mignon G. Nicholson,
San Antonio

Music Therapy?
It was remarkable that there was so much hoopla over whether the New York Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang could somehow have a lasting effect on relations between North Korea and the civilized world [March 10]. Not quite four decades ago, the U.S. table-tennis team ping-ponged to Peking, enabling Nixon to play the China card against the Soviets, but that only led to nearly two decades of détente. The only effective way to bring about the end of totalitarian regimes is direct confrontation. The U.S.S.R. fell because Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II confronted that country.
Richard Kade,
Sunnyvale, California

Picture Perfect?
I was disappointed that analyses of Obama's losses mentioned hubris as a reason for his defeats [March 17]. For all the bile that has been flung at Clinton alleging her presumption, she has shown herself to be a gracious leader; Obama has shown himself to be a mollycoddle.
Nadia El-Badry,
Dobbs Ferry, New York

Callie Shell's photograph of Obama captured a frightening reality of his campaign. Obama sits confidently consumed in his work, his feet resting atop the table. One imagines he's pondering new considerations for health care, reading aides' suggestions for education reform or reflecting on the commonalities of the American voter. But a closer look shows a copy of his best seller, The Audacity of Hope, at his heels. Why the need to have a book he wrote so close by? He had better broaden his horizons and begin researching beyond his own 2002 "hope" catchphrase, or he will choke on his own ego before the Democratic Party has a chance to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
Danielle Charette,
Durham, Connecticut

The photo of Obama's worn shoe soles reminded me of something my grandmother said just before I got married some 45 years ago: "You can determine what a man is like by the condition of his shoes." Obama certainly wouldn't have rated with her, poor bloke!
Nan Iversen,
Aldgate, South Australia

Breaking the Habit
The writers of The Wire are wrong to advocate jury nullification as civil disobedience in America's war on drugs [March 17]. These men say they would acquit any drug defendant, regardless of the evidence, if the crime did not involve violence. Their position undermines the legal system — society would collapse if everyone applied this principle for his own social grievance. And it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between "nonviolent" and "violent" drug offenses. The seeds of violence — shattered lives, shattered bodies, broken homes — are sown every time illegal drugs "peacefully" pass from hand to hand. We indeed need a new script for the next act in the war on drugs. But we need people other than The Wire's creators to write it for us.
John Hickey,
New York City

While we applaud the writers of The Wire for recognizing the enormous cost and fundamental inequities of the war on drugs, jury nullification is not a reasonable course of action. Not only would it take decades to have a real effect, but it is notoriously unreliable. We have found a solution to this problem: paid work, coupled with a drug-free environment and comprehensive support services. Every day in New York City, our Ready, Willing & Able program works with hundreds of former drug offenders, successfully helping them become law-abiding, self-sufficient members of society. It's a proven formula, in use right now, and it can put an end to the war on drugs once and for all.
George McDonald and Harriet Karr-McDonald, Co-Founders, the Doe Fund,
New York City

Thank goodness someone had the fortitude to address this horrific problem now facing our society. Incarcerating drug users only intensifies the problems of drug use. Addicts who have served time in prison not only still face the nightmare of trying to quit but also have a criminal record that multiplies their difficulties if they try to become productive members of society. We add the terrible handicap of a prison record to those who often begin with the disadvantage of lack of education and come from an environment of poverty. If this country would decriminalize drugs and regulate and tax their sale, not only would we eliminate the drug lords' great wealth and the violence they perpetrate, but we could use the tax revenue to create counseling centers.
Patricia Wedemeier,
Dallas

Removing profits from drug trafficking through decriminalization would be a better solution than jury nullification. Before Prohibition, many of the drugs ruled illegal today were legal. We didn't have the problems then that we do today — no profit motive, no economic engine driving the illegal-drug economy and fewer people being sent to prison.
Lyle La Faver,
Middletown, Calif.