DON'T RIDICULE ROMNEY
THE CARICATURE depicting Mitt Romney on your November 26 cover is distasteful for two reasons. First it portrays Romney--an accomplished entrepreneur, manager, and leader--as a grasping, leering, charlatan controlled not by his dreams, goals, and ethics, but by whoever winds that toy key in his back. Having worked with Romney in the bluest of states, wherein Republicans numbered by the dozens are barely tolerated, Romney always came across as an earnest partner who wanted to work with you to accomplish your shared goals. You never felt any whiff of sleaze around Mitt. Never.
More importantly, by characterizing him as this grotesque doll, then linking that to the title of CEO, you are furthering the media generated impression of CEOs and businessmen as grasping crooks. The enormous wealth and prosperity existing throughout this land that is shared by virtually all its citizens and "guests" alike has been generated largely under the guidance and energy of our CEOs and entrepreneurs, not by the Washington elites and power brokers that largely just distribute this wealth.
TERRY MAGRATH
Marblehead, Mass.
IT WAS REFRESHING to read Fred Barnes's in-depth story on Mitt Romney's philosophy and style of governance rather than another tired piece on Romney's Mormonism or flip-flopping ("The Man Who Wants to Fix Washington," November 26). All the talk of religion, electioneering, and the minutia of ideology has become really stale. Romney's system of gathering critical information to solve problems in the world of business just might be able to change Washington's ways.
MIKE F.
Charlottesville, Va.
A BOOMER REPENTS
AS A 55-YEAR-OLD ex-liberal from California, I identify with the loathsome boomers described in William Kristol's editorial "Not-So-Great Generation" (November 26).
There is nothing in my past that I regret more than the attitude I had regarding the military during the Vietnam war. I never literally spit on those remarkable people, but I did in my heart.
My generation was unbelievably narcissistic and lived lives of utter insignificance. Most of the people I knew then are still the same now. But hopefully more of us boomers will dare to face ourselves and come to grips with what a load of useless spoiled brats we have been.
CARRIE PIMENTEL
San Pedro, Calif.
VICTIMIZING VETERANS
THE ATTEMPT by congressional Democrats, the media, and Hollywood to portray veterans as victims, as Dean Barnett chronicles in "The Last Talking Point of the Left" (November 26), is distasteful to say the least. I was wounded on January 29, 2005, in a rocket attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and I resent the Democrats' attempts to woo my vote with promises of using other people's money to pay me off. They assume that like their base we are laying around feeling sorry for ourselves hoping to get a chunk of someone else's hard earned money.
But unlike the Democrats' base, veterans made a contract with the American people and earned their benefits. We agreed that in exchange for being willing to go where bullets are flying, we would receive certain compensation, which would be determined based on length of service, wounds, etc. Veterans are neither victims nor wards of the state. A veteran can look in the mirror and say with confidence, "I gave more to America than I ever took, and of that I am very proud."
RUSSELL A. SMITH
Oklahoma City, Okla.