Madam, - Charles Krauthammer (Opinion, September 8th) wonders why John McCain chose the inexperienced Sarah Palin as his running mate, thereby undermining his "Not ready to lead" slogan against Barack Obama.
The answer is simple: McCain realised that unless he changed something, he was going to lose. None of his attacks had dented Obama'\s popularity.
Obama has been in the public eye now for 19 months. Besides being a senator, he is the chairman of a 50-state organisation called Obama for President with thousands of full-time and part-time employees. Americans mostly like what they see of Barack Obama, so "not ready to lead" was a flat failure. McCain needed to change the script or continue as he was going - to defeat.
Hence the slightly desperate stroke of choosing as his running mate the governor of Alaska, a woman he met only once. In terms of his campaign, it was like invading Iraq without a plan. But by doing so he has re-energised and reinvigorated his party, particularly the right wingers, who were behind Bush's victories. He can take some satisfaction that, in the short term at least, his "wild card" has turned out to be an ace.
It's in the longer term that one can see the problems. Even if McCain loses, he has (perhaps inadvertently) passed the leadership of the Republican Party to the fundamentalist right, whose members he himself once called "agents of intolerance". George W. Bush may only have used the religious right, but Sarah Palin sounds like the real deal - speaking in tongues, converting gays for Jesus, confident of the hand of God.
If McCain wins, the chances of a 72-year-old man suffering death or incapacity within the term of his presidency are too high to make anyone comfortable. The thought of the governor of Alaska stepping into the office makes me feel more than uneasy.
It's not her inexperience that is so worrying, but that one cannot see anything like the tolerance of dissent and breadth of vision required to be a good president of the United States.
If John McCain wins this election, we may yet curse the day. - Yours, etc,
TOBY JOYCE, Balreask Manor, Navan, Co Meath.
Madam, - The addition of Mrs Sarah Palin to the US Republican election ticket brings me back a few years to a scenario which may be familiar to your readers.
John Delaney and the Football Assocation of Ireland had the task of picking a management team for a job with significant international exposure. A man in his 70s with noted health problems was chosen along with a young, boundlessly optimistic manager with no relevant experience.
In footballing terms Walsall could have been Alaska. We were told about how the executive experience gained there would blend with the insight of the older man to deliver a world-class experience.
At least in the FAI's case it was only a football team. - Yours, etc,
CATHAL RABBITTE, Bombay, India.
Madam, - The shallowness of Tony Allwright's analysis of Senator Obama's capacity to lead (Opinion, September 10th) is encapsulated, inter alia, in his denigration of Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, as an "Israeli-hating supportor of Palestinian terror". His article tells us little about Senator Obama but lots about Mr Allwright. - Yours, etc,
SHAY DUFFY, Sutton Park, Dublin 13.