Bush Is a Funny Guy? You Must Be Joking

David Gelernter (“Bush Makes Me Laugh,” Opinion, Oct. 24) makes me sick. He embodies America’s mistrust and disdain for intelligence, or anyone using words with more than two syllables. Why would anyone want an average goofball, instead of someone smart and thoughtful, to be the president of the United States? What has happened to our country? Thank goodness for your parallel article by Neil Gabler (“Karl Rove: America’s Mullah”), who sums up what’s at stake in this election: not a battle between liberal and conservative values, but the future of our nation as the founding fathers dreamed it.

Paula Goldman

Santa Monica

*

In his paean to vacuity, Gelernter demonstrates the same dissonance as the Bush administration. I guess compassion and earnestness are unseemly when Jimmy Carter spent time with those “plain people in their tacky little homes,” but making tacky jokes while the country falls apart is not. I wonder if the families of thousands of our dead and wounded soldiers get Bush’s jokes, or if the unemployed and uninsured are chuckling.

Give me a president who knows how to run a country -- I can get my comedy on cable.

Steven Cho

Culver City

*

Gelernter’s article may be a good indication of the mentality of the majority of Bush supporters. It is obvious what a mess he has gotten us into, and yet, in spite of his disastrous leadership, they continue to support him. A pleasant personality and a good sense of humor do not qualify one for the presidency.

When it comes to running the country, I’ll take a competent curmudgeon any day.

John M. Gault

Los Osos

*

Is Gelernter joking? Bush, this “funny guy,” took us to war. I don’t believe the troops in Iraq and their families are laughing.

Amy Brown

Oceanside