Superior Candidate Will Win Dogfight

* Stop worrying! By all accounts, the presidential election was essentially a tie. So what better test to break the tie and decide the presidency than the political dogfight in Florida? Whoever puts together the best team and ultimately prevails will have proved his superior ability to select competent surrogates, maneuver between the executive, judicial and legislative branches and shape and manage public opinion, all as a president is required to do to be successful.

Maybe we should consider trial by fire more often. I feel comfortable with the idea that if my guy doesn’t win this fight, he doesn’t deserve to be president.

MICHAEL WOOTEN

Camarillo

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* What kind of banana republic is Jeb Bush running in Florida? Past voter irregularities, present appearance of voter irregularities and a Legislature that is talking openly of appointing its own winner by selecting the electoral representatives itself (Nov. 29). This all happening in a state run by little brother. George W. should do the honorable and right thing for the country by denouncing these actions and withdrawing, since there has been no dispute of who won the popular vote in the country. We as a country will look like hypocrites if George W. becomes president based on the results of Florida.

BILL CHARTIER

Los Angeles

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* Should Al Gore concede? Yes--on one condition: George W. Bush agrees to serve one term.

The precedent was set in the 1876 presidential election when Republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes knew the election had been stolen for him (not by him).

Now, there was a man who showed character and integrity, not merely talked about it.

Bush claims he trusts the American people. Time for him to show the American people can trust him.

RICHARD BLUE

Los Angeles

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* I never thought it possible but Gore’s actions of the past few weeks make President Clinton look like a class act.

ROBERT E. LEITER

Fullerton

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* Sixty percent want the presidential election to come to an end, including 25% who voted for Gore, according to pollsters. The answer is dependent upon how the question is put.

If asked, are you sick and tired and want it to come to an end, I too would have answered yes. But if the question is, do you want it to end if in so doing you end up flushing our democracy down the toilet--how would you answer?

I bet we would all say that we can all patiently wait a few more weeks.

ARLINE MATHEWS

Chatsworth

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* Just when I thought politicians could not further shame themselves, Gore once again taunts the limits of poor behavior for political gain. At his press conference on Tuesday, when asked about the 60% of the public who desired he concede the election, he stated he didn’t believe in the polls. He then turned right around and professed he was pursuing the election challenges to ensure the “will of the people” was properly expressed.

There is only one living politician who could so brazenly pull off such a stunt without inviting disaster. Mr. Gore, you are no Bill Clinton.

STEVE McCOMBS

Chatsworth

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* Dear George W. and Al: Be careful what you wish for.

JOYCE GROSS

Beverly Hills

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* Nothing is less appealing than a gaggle of (all white, all male) lawyers trying to look sanctimonious and morally outraged, especially those representing Gore and Bush. I never dreamed that we would have a coup d’attorney determining who will be the 43rd president of the United States! But here we are.

No matter which candidate is declared the winner, half of the voters are going to feel that the election results were manipulated and that someone “stole” the outcome. Whatever happened to the concept: for the good of the country?

NANCY RIGG

Los Angeles

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* Re “A County’s Back-Room Goings-On Bring Suit,” Nov. 28: I guess now we know why the Republicans are so anxious to seize power and stop all legal battles in their tracks. This from the same people accusing the vice president of trying to steal the election.

I think if more people were aware of this so-called technical violation, they’d be shocked and outraged and they would, at the very least, demand a recount. Certainly public opinion would turn against Bush if this were more widely known.

MICHAEL SOLOMON

Los Angeles

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* Veteran Republican strategist Kenneth Khachigian says that several dozen Republicans “clamored to be let in when they believed that partisans were retreating behind closed doors to put in the fix” (Commentary, Nov. 28). Where were they when two unsupervised representatives of the state Republican Party used a back room in Seminole County Elections Supervisor Sandra Goard’s office for 10 days to “correct” 4,700 Republican absentee ballot applications so they would not be thrown out?

GERRY FALLON

San Marino

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* I thought tampering with ballots was against the law. How is it that the Republican operatives were allowed to alter ballot [applications]? Could this be G.W. Bush’s Watergate? I only want a president who allows all the votes to be included. I really don’t know what to think of people anymore. It is truly amazing to hear the comments I do by Republicans who just seem to want to run out the clock. We, the public, know what and why they are doing this. To grab the presidency before they get caught. Just like Watergate.

CAROLYN KAY LOPEZ

Santa Ana

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* I noticed in Doyle McManus’ Nov. 28 news analysis that Colin Powell is now rumored to be Bush’s pick for secretary of State should the Texas governor become president. That’s the fourth prominent person in G.W.’s in-crowd plucked from former President Bush’s administration (Dick Cheney, James Baker and Andrew Card being the others). I’m holding my breath lest John H. Sununu be tapped to run Commerce or Treasury. Doesn’t G.W. have any friends, political allies or advisors of his own?

And why is no one talking about these eerie signs that a G.W. presidency will be a bizarre reenactment of his father’s tenure? The first Bush administration lingers in my memory as a period of ineffectual mediocrity, making a reprise wholly undesirable.

DIANE KRIEGER

Torrance

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* Thank you, Gov. Bush and Secretary Cheney, for starting the transition. Focusing on preparations for a new administration is exactly what you should be doing. Watching Gore grovel for dimpled chads and pregnant chads to be counted as votes is truly a sorry and sad sight and anything but presidential.

GALEN COLWELL

Laguna Beach

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* Congratulations to Robert Scheer for joining the Al Gore Hypocrite Hall of Fame (Commentary, Nov. 28). His characterization of Bush’s “scorched-earth tactics” is breathtaking in the face of Gore’s determination to bring down the entire system in support of his own personal ambition. In uncritically repeating the canard that “there are thousands of Florida votes that have never been counted by hand or machine,” Scheer has made common cause with those for whom the truth is but an inconvenience to be overcome in the pursuit of power.

STEVE CHESSER

La Crescenta

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* I find it interesting that what we’ve been calling “recount” here we would be labeling “corruption” in any other country.

DIANE SMITH

Valencia