Colin Powell’s Views

* Your Sept. 20 article, “Powell’s Centrist Views Find Favor Among Republicans,” seems to express surprise that a moderate candidate could have appeal. Apparently, this is a concept that is not well understood by the political parties either.

I have never understood the reasoning that the parties use when selecting candidates. There are far more people in the middle, with moderate views, than there are people holding the views at either extreme. Yet, the very liberal seem to have a large influence on the platform and candidates selected by Democrats and the very conservative have a large influence on the Republicans. Why do the parties choose candidates who appeal to their most extreme members, rather than selecting someone who would appeal to moderates across party lines?

I would really like to be able to vote for someone who holds moderate views similar to my own, so I hope someday at least one party takes a chance and defies “conventional wisdom.”

LINDA LISIECKI

Irvine

* Re “Powell and Clinton: Two Sides of a Coin,” Commentary, Sept. 21:

Thanks to John J. Pitney Jr. for outlining many good reasons why I will vote for President Clinton (or Colin Powell) in ’96 rather than any Republican candidate: keep abortion legal; no government-mandated school prayer; limits on gun purchases; critical of “rhetorical nonsense. . . about the word values “ (Gingrich and values?); re-evaluate but keep affirmative action.

MICHAEL CARR

Pasadena