Re “Disclosure Links Bradley to Special-Interest Groups,” Nov. 2:

Someone needs to explain why the endorsement of (and cash contributions to) Vice President Al Gore by labor unions and education groups is portrayed as a positive statement as to his qualifications for president, while donations given to former Sen. Bill Bradley and GOP candidates by groups in other industries are uniformly vilified as giving into “special interests.” If no one were “interested,” there would be no campaigning and no contributions.

LISALEE ANNE WELLS

Long Beach

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Gore sent me scurrying into the Bradley camp at their first New Hampshire forum when he said that his opponent’s proposal to provide health care for millions of uninsured Americans would consume the entire expected federal budget surplus (Oct. 28).

The U.S. already spends more of its gross domestic product on health care than any other nation in the world except Switzerland. The U.S. is also the only industrialized nation in the world that treats the health care of its citizens like some commodity to be bought and sold in the marketplace. All these other nations have tax-supported national health care plans that cost less than what the U.S. is spending. Their citizens are as healthy or healthier than U.S. citizens.

In a 1998 survey 69% “believe(d) that the federal government should guarantee health care for all.” An opinion shared by a growing number of health care professionals. To say the U.S. can’t afford a Medicare-like national health care plan is absurd. What the U.S. can’t afford is the wasteful way it now meets the health care needs of its citizens. Adopting a tax-supported national health care plan will make the U.S. a wealthier, healthier, more productive nation.

NORM EWERS

Irvine

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Re “It’s a TKO for McCain in Debates,” Commentary, Nov. 2:

Anybody realize yet that Arianna Huffington’s diatribes about campaign finance “reform” and worshipful support of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) are much more about her desire to score points with her companions in the upscale Westside social circles than they are about the Republican presidential nomination?

KIP DELLINGER

Los Angeles

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Most presidential contenders are making promises of general worthiness. Education will be improved, Social Security will be safeguarded, the military will be strengthened, the economy will be in the best of health, there will be no room for discrimination, etc. But no one is presenting a platform showing how he will achieve this dream. I will vote for the first one who will unequivocally define how he will reach his goals, provided he makes sense.

CLAUDE CHABANA

Monrovia