Clinton is right to run

Re “It’s over,” editorial, May 8

In 1972, the Democratic Party complied with the “will of the voters” in nominating George McGovern for president. Said decision led to one of the worst defeats in the party’s history.

To prevent such a disaster from occurring again, the party changed the rules for the selection of a nominee and created the “superdelegate,” who would have the ability to overturn the will of the voters and nominate the most electable candidate. That is the superdelegates’ job. It is not their job to rubber stamp the will of the voters, as you indicate in your editorial.

Of the two remaining Democratic candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton is, in my opinion, the most electable. If Barack Obama is the nominee, the Republican attack machine will have a field day that would make what it did to John Kerry in 2004 seem like a picnic.

Howard Fondler

Granada Hills

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You write, “Clinton has run a long and admirable campaign” and that “she has demonstrated resolve and character.”

What aspects of the campaign are you focused on? Maybe the one in which Clinton was throwing down a shot of whiskey and a beer? Or the call for a gas-tax holiday, when she wanted to find out if members of Congress were for us or against us, something straight out of President Bush’s playbook?

No, what she has demonstrated is a remarkable capacity for pandering.

Bill Shannon

Oceanside

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Re “The ‘rights’ thing,” Opinion, May 8

Not only does Clinton have the “right” to run for president, she is right to continue the race. The pundits may have forgotten, but she has garnered millions of votes and won the largest states in the union (remember California, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania?). There are still six more primaries with voters who want to be heard. Is it “right” to deny them a choice?

As a longtime Clinton supporter who doesn’t carry a lunch bucket, drink beer or bowl, and who is upper-middle-class, well-educated and African American, I have grown weary of the condescension and disrespect shown toward Clinton and her supporters. When she’s not being called “shrill,” she’s portrayed as some psychotic stalker who boils rabbits and frightens children. Whether you agree with her or not, she deserves better.

The primary season ends in June. So suck it up and stick it out.

Iris Ingram

Long Beach