Letters to the editor
McCain's VP choice
Re "McCain changes the equation," Aug. 30
John McCain's politics-before-country selection of Gov. Sarah Palin is an insult to the women who backed Hillary Clinton.
As Clinton's admirers, we agree with her core values. Assuming that we will switch to a novice merely because we have the same reproductive organs is a major mistake.
Arline M. Mathews
Chatsworth
The writer ran as a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives in 1974.
Clinton mined a deep reservoir of democratic women enthralled with breaking the last glass ceiling. It's very easy to dismiss McCain's choice of Palin as a misguided attempt to tap into that same reservoir, but I suspect McCain has something craftier in mind. He may be hoping he can tap a second, as yet undiscovered reservoir of conservative women who hold the same unrequited dream.
Can Palin do it? She's tough, smart, ambitious and personable, and may well devour the long-winded Joe Biden for lunch in their debate. Democrats should listen to Alaskans who tell us their landscape is littered with the bodies of those who underestimated Sarah Palin.
Miguel Muñoz
Los Angeles
Re "The making of the candidate," Aug. 31
Nice family photo of Palin and one of her children admiring the magnificent caribou they've just slaughtered. It's always inspiring to see compassionate conservatism in action.
J. Berinstein
Northridge
Re "GOP wasn't expecting this challenge," Sept. 2
When I opened the paper this morning, my blood boiled.
Even if the story of Palin's daughter being pregnant is newsworthy -- which I highly doubt -- it was absolutely unnecessary to put her picture above the fold on your front page.
This young woman is not a candidate, not a public figure, not a media darling, not a potential replacement president.
Sherrill Boller
Los Angeles
The Times' article describes Bristol Palin's decision to marry the father of her unborn child as "a move that drew widespread praise from religious leaders and convention delegates."
Why is the decision of a 17-year-old girl, made under the glare of publicity, an occasion for praise from anyone outside her family?
