'Up Next: Clinton Vs. Palin'
'Up Next: Clinton Vs. Palin'
No action on the part of the American body politic could better undercut this country's claim to "exceptionalism" than Nicholas Wapshott's observations about the basic commonality of the public appeal of both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin [Opinion, "Up Next: Clinton Vs. Palin" September 10, 2008].
His conclusion that the same voters who he sees electing John McCain and Mrs. Palin would have elected a Democratic president were Mrs. Clinton on the ticket as either presidential or vice-presidential candidate may well be accurate. But there is little that could be said that would be more damning about the judgment or wisdom of the American people.
Regardless of which of these two personalities one prefers, the gap between their positions on virtually every important issue is so enormous that the suggestion that the mass of voters could support either one almost as easily as the other truly suggests the degrading extent to which the American political process has become a combination of bread and circus, and theater of the absurd.
That any large portion of the voting public would see little difference in one or the other of these two candidates is a frightening commentary either on the political education of our people, or, alternatively, the hollowness of these two candidates, or perhaps on both of these possibilities.
DAVID SIMPSON
Tenafly, N.J.
'Kidnapping Ahmadinejad'
While kidnapping President Ahmadinejad and delivering him to the Hague would probably be useless, I am still shocked that a country that permits and even supports his poisonous views — such as calling for Israel, a member country of the United Nations, to be wiped off the map — can continue as a member in good standing in the major international organizations [Editorial, "Kidnapping Ahmadinejad," September 10, 2008].
Doesn't it make sense first to initiate the debate on expelling Iran from the so-called "civil society" institutions such as the United Nations? If any other country were the object of these kinds of verbal attacks, would there not be calls to expel the country making these threats from "civil society"?
IRA SOHN
