McCain’s personal life

Re “McCain’s broken marriage fractured other ties as well,” July 11

If you want to know why people are speculating about whether The Times is dying, you need only look at the July 11 front page. Though a Democrat, I abhor having the juicy details of John McCain’s love life thrust upon me.

Although such articles might be of entertainment interest, I see no reason for them to be newsworthy. What a person’s marriage has to do with his ability to be president still escapes most of us. We are now all well aware of the pain that previous holders of that office, such as John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt, caused their wives, yet we celebrate their accomplishments.

No correlation exists between marital fidelity and executive acumen. Were it so, Rutherford Hayes and William Howard Taft should top the list of presidential greats. I am disgusted you would stoop to such depths.

Bruce Tennant

Long Beach

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It is typical Republican hypocrisy that the party’s presumed nominee would be caught telling tall tales about his extramarital affair, and yet there is not a word about it from the hyper-moralistic right. That is nerve considering all the grief Republicans gave President Clinton for his affairs.

If how McCain treated his first wife is any measure of his character, it is no wonder why Nancy Reagan doesn’t seem thrilled with his nomination. How does she or any other Republican support a man who at 42 left his sick wife for a 24-year-old heiress and then lied about being an adulterer?

Agi Arnold

Los Angeles