Al Gore and Leadership

Re “Who’s Leading Whom?” Opinion, May 28: William Schneider apparently doesn’t believe that leaders are born (or at least born again) and not made, but that if Al Gore only follows a couple paragraphs of his advice and makes a good speech, voila, he’ll be a leader. Advice to Schneider: Don’t bet the farm on it; Gore is much more a born panderer than he’ll ever be an elected leader.

DAN CANNAN

Aliso Viejo

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Gore’s leadership problem isn’t with George W. Bush; it’s his role as vice president to Bill Clinton, one of this country’s most charismatic and effective leaders, which compels Gore to try to establish himself as a different entity, his own man, not Bill’s follower. Hence, among other gaffes, Gore’s silly position on Elian Gonzalez, when all he needed to do was keep his mouth shut.

Gore found his groove and telling edge with Bill Bradley; doing the same with Bush will be an indicator of the cohesive effectiveness between himself and his campaign staff. These agonizingly long presidential campaigns are, after all, America’s best testing of finding the next most powerful man in the world. It is time, surely, for President Clinton to find the shadows.

JACQUELINE KERR

Los Angeles

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Let me get this straight. Gore wants tax credits and increased federal spending to the tune of $11.3 billion to hire government employees to baby-sit more than 10 million children belonging to other people, on state property for after-school supervision from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., five days a week (May 26).

And then he has the audacity to say, “Government doesn’t raise children, families do.” Does he see “I’m stupid” stickers on the foreheads of the electorate?

JILL CHAPIN

Santa Monica

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There was no notice in April when Gore announced his support for the continued observer status of the Vatican at the U.N. Yet you headline Bush’s support including his quote, “Some groups have been trying to silence that voice in the United Nations. The position of the current administration is unclear” (May 27).

No group has been more destructive of the integrity of the whole U.N. than the Republican Party. Indeed, the demise of the U.N. is on Republicans’ wish list. The nerve of Bush to use anything sympathetic about the U.N. as an issue.

I had to read nearly to the end of the article to find that not only was it not true that the current administration’s position was unclear but that Gore beat Bush to clarity on that issue long before.

No wonder Bush, who is frighteningly inexperienced, has so many people thinking he’s ahead. The press cuts him all the slack he wants while it never misses an opportunity to cut Gore.

SARA R. NICHOLS

Los Angeles