Letters

I just finished reading President Clinton's side of the story [June 28]. He's still his same old charming self and one of our greatest Presidents, in spite of his weaknesses. And who has none? Under Clinton, the U.S. economy was great. The deficit was eliminated. No devastating wars. No killings. I'd vote for him again if he could run and I'm an old-time Republican.
ELLEN RUARK
Southbury, Conn.

Good men do not have to explain themselves, just as good Presidents do not have to write books to shape their legacy or justify their deeds. A person's actions speak for themselves.
JERRY GARBER
San Antonio, Texas

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How I miss Clinton's intelligent, thoughtful and truly compassionate leadership. He has the kind of genuine concern that pays more than lip service to the needs of the common citizen. I was struck by the fluidity of his responses and his understanding of complex geopolitical issues. I am so used to the current Administration's terse, repetitive and convoluted statements which don't respond to anything that I had forgotten what real leadership sounds like.
LYNN CAPEHART
San Diego

I voted for Bill Clinton twice. I think he was a great President who did terrific things for our country. I absolutely deplore and abominate, however, the person that Clinton is. And I know the meaning of is. Anything for which Clinton should have been respected has been overshadowed by his lascivious behavior and abuse of power.
DAVID PARK BROWN
Kailua, Hawaii

Bill Clinton tells of how counseling helped him overcome his demons. Perhaps the Clinton haters who still seethe with rage at our former President and who spent much of the '90s spreading vicious rumors about him should follow Clinton's lead and seek counseling as well. Surely they have demons of their own to overcome.
QUENTIN DUNNE
Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Joe Klein thinks Clinton's book will usher in "a brief return to the noxious '90s, a brouhaha for which not many people are nostalgic." This is a clear example of a writer's getting carried away by his powers of alliteration. Everybody I know is nostalgic for the '90s, but maybe people like us, who come from the L.A. ghetto, don't count. When Bill Clinton dies, the streets of Washington will be thronged with weeping, praying mourners. But they won't be like the people who watched Reagan's funeral procession. Many of Clinton's mourners will be people who actually live in Washington: black people.
VICTORIA BRAGO
Los Angeles

Although Bill Clinton may have been relevant as President, he is largely irrelevant now. And so is his book.
ROBERT BILLS
Laguna Beach, Calif.

What Joe Klein glosses over is that Clinton was probably the only U.S. President who held up a mirror to the nation so it could inspect its own morality and yet survive the shattered image. Clinton's legacy will be much more than an attack on the moneyed right. His work in the field of AIDS through his foundation is more useful than George W. Bush's limp efforts. My guess is that Clinton will have a memorial better than an eternal flame: the collective respect of those who know that through transgression, suffering and humility we reach our full human potential.
MARILYN KEEGAN
Cape Town

Clinton is the personification of all Americans: vigorous, ambitious, flawed, talented, vain, sensitive and persistent. His America is the real America, not the movie version. Yes, we will cry real tears for Bill Clinton at his funeral. He is our family; he is us.
PRESTON FOSTER
Princeton, N.J.