Democratic ‘Heavyweights’

David Aaron’s commentary “Will the Heavyweights Please Suit Up?” (Op-Ed, Dec. 21) is an insult to both the candidates as well as to those Democrats who choose not to run for President in 1988. It seems to me that it is the right of any person to run or not to run. For those who do not, let us take them at their word and leave them alone. I’m tired of hearing people goad such men as Sen. Bill Bradley and Gov. Mario Cuomo to run for President. If they don’t want to do it, that’s fine with me. There are enough candidates to sort out as it is.

I think as far as those who are running are concerned, having watched several of the “debates” as well as individual interviews , that the selection of Democratic candidates as it now stands is fine. We do have a good choice between men who, in spite of what has been alleged, do have differences between them but not so many as to provide the fuel for a split in the party. And if Gary Hart can add either some fuel to fire up the others--or prove to be a viable candidate himself--then that’s even better.

A little historical precedent must also be mentioned here. I hear all this talk about “lack of experience” among many of the Democrats. Might I point out that many of our great “Founding Fathers” had little political experience before they launched the ship of state 200 years ago. Abraham Lincoln had been a congressman (and an undistinguished one at that) for just two years a decade before being elected President. Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and even Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan had all held elective office for similar lengths of time (or less) than most of the current crop of Democrats.

Why don’t the press and news media allow we, the people, to decide for ourselves when it’s time to vote without this constant misinterpretation everyday?

LENARD E. DAVIS

Newport Beach