Presidential Debate

* The candidates in the first debate get Fs on the following topics:

Immigration, education reform, health care, drug program reform/rehabilitation, prison reform, tax reform, corporate responsibility, rising racial tensions, job opportunities. Both candidates were avoiding the main issues, afraid to rock the boat. There was a lack of debate or discussion and the moderator was superficial and weak.

Suggestions for improvement: Bring Ross Perot into the debates to stimulate the issues. Or, create a debate opportunity (on a college campus) where these issues are discussed in length.

JIMMY DICHIRICO

Los Angeles

* Thanks to The Times for your report on salient facts in Sunday’s debate (“Candidates Tweak Facts to Advantage,” Oct. 7). On 11 matters of fact, here is my count for a box score on truth: Bill Clinton, 7; Bob Dole, 2; tie, 2. If the truth shall make us free, then the evidence is clearly pro-Clinton.

HOWARD J. PARAD

Pacific Palisades

* The debate left two clear impressions on me. First, that Clinton’s personality and style are better suited to the debate format than Dole’s. Second, that the candidates are polar opposites on the most fundamental issues that bear on this election: values and character.

Dole, who has served his country and paid personally in both pain and elective service at the national level, conveys the values and character that are increasingly rare in public servants: honesty and integrity.

Clinton, who governed a small state for three terms, leaving behind a nagging series of integrity issues as yet unresolved, seems to represent the ‘90s-era values that are tolerant of drug use and marital infidelity that continue to cloud both his own reputation and that of those who surround him in the White House.

GREGG JACOBSEN

Thousand Oaks

* One of the major differences between Clinton and Dole is that Clinton understands that government has a role in the welfare of the American people. Dole and his Republican friends want to eliminate this obligation one program at a time. The Constitution starts with the words, “We the people.” And most Americans understand that the government is to be made “of and for the people.”

Dole et al. seem to think that the Constitution says, “We the politicians.” Dole made it quite clear in the debate that he sees the U.S. government as an entity working separately from the American people.

TODD GROVES

Los Angeles

* I felt that Dole did quite well in the debates except on the issue of crime. He should have asked the following pertinent questions:

What are the names of the 100,000 police officers that the crime bill put on the streets? What are the serial numbers of the assault weapons that the crime bill took off the streets? Of the convicted felons, dangerous fugitives, murderers and other predators that were prevented from buying guns by the Brady bill, how many are now incarcerated? Dole should not allow this president, who has a propensity for stretching the truth, to make claims that cannot be substantiated.

RON YORKE

Reseda

* I listened to the entire debate and to my amazement, immediately after the last words, the “polls” announced that Clinton had scored! I always wonder about the polls, because never in all my 84 years have I been asked my opinion by a pollster. I know what I heard, and I know that Sen. Dole impressed me more favorably than the president. Clinton kept repeating the liberal mantra: Medicare, education, environment.

I am interested in this marvelous economy that our president brags about. In order to have only a middle class income, it takes at least two jobs, one each for the mom and pop, and sometimes more than one each, just to supply the necessities and a minimum of luxuries. With both parents employed, it is no wonder that some children are neglected and find mischief to fill their lonely hours.

HILDA SILLAVO

Downey

* Re “Dole’s Debate Strategy: Apply the Liberal Label,” Oct. 4:

My dictionary says, “Liberalism: a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of man and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties.” Sounds pretty good to me. We’ve had a few liberals over the centuries; people like Tom Jefferson, James Madison, Abe Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt. I’m not so sure Clinton is one, considering his vote for the “welfare reform” bill, his deplorable environmental record and his determined drive to the center.

I deplore the Dolean depreciation of the language. “Liberal” in his hands has become a code word for “leftist,” “Communist,” a flaming radical. What this country needs is a real liberal. Will we ever see the like again in the White House?

S. WOHLGEMUTH

Reseda