Bush and Gorbachev’s Malta Summit

Regarding David S. Broder’s column (“It’s No Joke That Bush Lacks the ‘Vision Thing,’ ” Op-Ed Page, Dec. 6), it strikes me that Broder is allowing his preconceptions to cloud his own vision.

I am a registered Democrat and did not vote for Bush, but I have to say that Bush is a better President than I thought he would be. Broder praises Gorbachev for reaching “across national boundaries and ideological barriers” to “move people with the power of his ideas,” but Gorbachev’s ideas seem at present to play better internationally than they do in the Soviet Union. However imaginative Gorbachev may be, it remains to be seen whether his “vision” can be forged into workable solutions to his country’s problems.

Bush presents himself as a real person trying to do a real job. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, whom many people think of as visionary leaders, led us into the tragedy of Vietnam; it was left to the duplicitous but pragmatic Richard Nixon to pry us out.

There are times in history when a clear eye and a steady hand are worth more than all the visions in the world. This may be such a time. If so, Bush could do much worse than to exercise the caution and restraint that he has demonstrated so far.

ROD SMITH

Corona