Clinton’s Leadership Style

I object to the interpretive “news analysis” by Times staff writer Paul Richter on President Clinton’s decision-making style (July 15).

On the other side of the story, Richter fails to ask whether the perception of Clinton’s “weakness” is a cheap-shot absurdity. Hardly a phrase in Richter’s article gave real credit to the importance of taking time to make decisions and to consider all options and arguments. These are strengths in my view, rare qualities among recent Presidents. Reagan made fast, honest, sentimental decisions (about the Contras, for example) that were trusted but were wrong and/or illegal. Clinton’s style is a new model of thinking for a new world that needs the deepest, broadest, best-considered thinking we can get.

You try it sometime. Pretend you’re Bill Clinton waking up in the morning and going to work. You’d want to go back to sleep. Clinton pulls all-nighters. The least we can do is bring him a Big Mac at 4 o’clock in the morning.

JANE WARDLOW PRETTYMAN

Santa Barbara

* The selection of five instances of so-called “tortured decision-making” should have been balanced with instances of non-tortured decision-making, e.g., Haiti, NAFTA, GATT, the Mexican peso crisis, the Japanese Trade Agreement. Not one was mentioned. Is this fairness? Is this a new literary genre taught in departments of journalism?

JOSEPH A. GRISPINO

Lake San Marcos

* “Key Clinton Supporters Switch to Dole” (July 21) tells how Don Tyson of Tyson Foods has turned his campaign donation support to Bob Dole and Phil Gramm after supporting Bill Clinton in 1992. In another paper the same day, a front-page article told of how Dole was resigned to defeat in his food industry deregulation bill but vowed to bring it up again next year (as a campaign issue). I wonder how much (in campaign contributions) it costs to buy deregulation.

For the second time, first when Clinton was governor, Tyson Foods found that its campaign contributions cannot compromise the ethics of Bill Clinton. So it chose to support someone who will be more sympathetic to industry no matter how it affects the health of the people.

BILL GORBACK

Thousand Oaks

* Dole is leading Republican efforts to dismantle portions of the Clean Air and Water acts, and various EPA regulations. Tyson Foods discharges chicken wastes into nearby waterways. Clinton, meanwhile, is fighting to uphold environmental safeguards and upgrade meat and poultry inspections. I was surprised the writer failed to see the connection.

BOB BATH

Mission Viejo

* Re “Will Californians Get Even With Clinton?” Opinion, July 16:

In these times we as a nation are faced with some hard choices. There are some things we must all accept. First, the Cold War is over. The “Evil Empire” is now a group of independent republics barely able to maintain themselves, never mind be a threat to the rest of the world. Second, the ‘80s are also over. That glorious time when the government in Washington ran up a $4-trillion tab arming the U.S. against the now-defunct Soviet Union. The time has come to pay the piper.

In light of both these circumstances anyone who works for, or is dependent upon, the defense industry for their livelihood should be looking for another way to make a living. The writing has been on the wall for some time that the United States will no longer need and can no longer afford the massive military complex it has created. Everyone agrees that the budget needs to be balanced, and that the government needs to cut spending, but no one wants those cuts to affect their jobs or livelihoods. Unfortunately the cuts are going to affect us all. It isn’t easy, but it’s time to “bite the bullet” and prepare ourselves for these changes.

RICHARD J. BAUM

Los Angeles

* The Times on July 13 reported that the Republican National Committee is seeking to diminish the stature of President Clinton by refusing to accord him the title of “Mr. President.”

Another news story reported that the Republicans have targeted women, blacks and Jews on a criminal-type “wanted” poster.

Hmm. It appears that the GOP is against Democrats, against women, against blacks and against Jews. Shades of South Africa?

ROSEMARY QUESADA-WEINER

Temple City