Madam, - Your Editorial of September 6th ("A good week for Republicans") asserts that Sarah Palin's speech last week "dispelled all such doubts" around her nomination.
This is a remarkably confident assertion about a candidate who has been under the world's microscope for less than two weeks. Mrs Palin is an excellent performer and will bowl over the Republican base, but her ultra-right-wing social views, the lingering investigations surrounding her time as Alaska governor and her almost complete lack of national or international experience (Dublin's population is twice that of Alaska) mean that doubts do remain.
Due to the absolute ineptitude of the incumbents, whoever takes the positions up for election in November will be a marked improvement, but your otherwise excellent coverage does not need to be clouded by blinkered Republican cheerleading in the style of right-wing American media. - Yours, etc,
BEN HEADON,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 3.
Madam - Breda O'Brien des-cribes US Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin as "pro-life" (Opinion, September 6th).
Is this the same Sarah Palin who supports the death penalty, picks off wild animals from a helicopter for sport, and boasts of packing her son off to Iraq to fight in a trumped-up war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives?
Is this the same Sarah Palin who, as governor of Alaska,slashed funding intended to help unwed teenage mothers and special-needs children?
If so, then anti-abortion she may be, but "pro-life" she most certainly is not. - Yours, etc,
CAROL STEPHENSON-CARTY,
Rowanbyrn,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - So I guess you could say that Gov Sarah Palin is pro-life, except if you're a moose. - Yours, etc,
SHEILA SULLIVAN,
Achill Island,
Co Mayo.