Quotes of the Day

Although I am troubled by the refusal of Senator John McCain to answer many of the questions asked of him, the emphasis TIME placed on this, rather than on his answers on the issues, is another example of the media's liberal bias [Sept. 8]. I was disappointed that the vast majority of your interview with McCain was devoted to his "prickly" attitude, when the full version of the interview on TIME.com had much more substance.
Alanna Rice, COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA, U.S.

TIME's compilation on McCain is brilliant and timely. It extols the honesty and integrity of McCain, and it all rings naturally true. Real courage comes from inborn convictions, not training, and McCain certainly has the right stuff. Our country needs a President who has guts and not popularity. If McCain wins, it will be the right victory, for he will put country before self, as we all should.
Thayalan Cumarasamy, CHERRY HILL, N.J., U.S.

Though I differ with Senator McCain on specific issues, I've always admired his maverick spirit and straight-talk approach to the press. But his interview with TIME raises grave concerns. McCain could have defused legitimate questions about his campaign's new discipline in any number of ways, but to put reporters from a major newsmagazine in the deep freeze betrays a fundamental lack of self-control, not to mention candor. Do we really want to elect such a mercurial individual as our Commander in Chief?
Owen Prell, MILL VALLEY, CALIF., U.S.

Why couldn't McCain simply provide his definition of honor? He misjudged this opportunity by failing to realize that the answer was for those who have not read his books. Read your book, McCain? We've decided to read Barack Obama's.
Jay Fenwick and Cindy Norris, BOONE, N.C., U.S.

Your special issue on the Republicans bent over backward to present McCain as an honorable man, but the transcript of his bizarre interview, in which McCain refused to answer simple and legitimate questions, was frightening. It showed a resentful, uncommunicative and uncooperative McCain who was uncomfortable with the straight talk he used to be known for and who had a chip on his shoulder the size of a sequoia. Such a volatile temperament renders him unfit to have his finger anywhere near the Button.
Lee Otterholt, LAGUNA BEACH, CALIF., U.S.

In your recent issue featuring Obama, he is portrayed as an all-around person fit for the job of being the next President of the United States. Your articles on McCain were anything but that. He does not get credit for anything that he has accomplished. While I understand there is freedom of the press, there still needs to be freedom of choice.
Rivky Levy, BROOKLYN, N.Y., U.S.

Your articles on McCain reveal truths that no objective person could help but understand. McCain and party call Obama an élitist because he went to the Ivy League schools Columbia and Harvard. Yet McCain went to Annapolis and became a pilot, and when asked he couldn't remember how many homes he and his wife owned! Talk about élitism! And do some people think that going against the party line one out of 10 times is a maverick? And he cannot answer a simple question about how he defines honor. No doubt he will later say how he regrets giving up his honor for expediency yet again as he has done so often. What a horror of a candidate — the U.S. and the world deserve better.
William Earl Simcoe, KARKKILA, FINLAND

I felt quite disappointed after reading McCain's interview because of his attitude toward the interviewer. Sometimes a journalist has to ask questions whose answers he's supposed to know, but they may be interesting for the readers. In my opinion, "Read it in my books" is not an appropriate answer, especially coming from a public personality.
Juan Moreno, SEVILLE, SPAIN

I am becoming weary of McCain's theme of putting country first. When a man spends so much energy saying the same thing over and over, it is almost as if he is trying to convince himself that he will always put country before self. His life story should be enough evidence of this, considering the number of years he has given to the service of his country at great personal loss. It can be easily argued that America is strongest when its economy is at its best, so the candidate would do well to dwell more on fixing the economy, providing jobs and research and development which have made America so strong, and downplay the macho America which only alienates it from the rest of the world. Honor, though, is another question!
Eyo Okon, LAGOS, NIGERIA

Adversity and Character
Re Michael Kinsley's essay on the effect of personal tragedy on politicians: Kinsley, you've got to get out more [Sept. 8]. It is human nature to take the easy path. Keeping a Down syndrome baby or refusing preferential treatment in horrendous prisoner-of-war conditions is a measure of character. Some can say what they'll do under pressure; others have demonstrated what they did under the intense heat of reality.
Troy Hammond, ASHBURN, VA., U.S.

What Becomes a Leader Most?
Obama as a candidate for the White House is a perfect embodiment of "all things to all men" [Sept. 1]. For an election to the post of what could arguably be termed President of the World, that is the kind of man that we need — an Obama with a demonstrable history of crossing boundaries, creating possibilities and redefining perspectives, not a McCain whose greatest talent seems to lie in brandishing a "bloody" past in our faces, and who never fails to make me think of a Walkman missing all buttons save rewind.
Tolu Ogunlesi, ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA

In your cover story you left out the perhaps most important alternative: that of a leader. The U.S. as sole remaining post-Cold War superpower needs all the international support it can get to successfully play that responsible role. A great deal was achieved during the Clinton Administration, but that was almost put to naught under George W. Bush. As macabre as this may sound: it was only "thanks" to 9/11 that the world at least halfheartedly rallied back around the U.S. Barack Obama as President has an important message for the world: "We are your leader of choice, not because our army is stronger, but because we represent you all and your aspirations for freedom."
Waruno Mahdi, BERLIN

What's Next for China
Re Simon Elegant's article on Beijing after the Olympics: It was indeed mission accomplished [Sept. 8]. When I visited the capital just last April, I saw people beginning to embrace a modern civilization while maintaining their roots in traditional culture. As we saw during the opening ceremonies, China is willing to share its traditions and accept those of foreign cultures. It is this combination that will eventually produce a better China in the not-so-distant future.
John Paul O. Chua, ILOILO CITY, PHILIPPINES

Pointing Fingers Over Georgia
Zbigniew Brzezinski's article [Aug. 25] was monstrously lopsided. He fails to mention that it was the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili who ignited the war by attacking South Ossetia in the first place. Saakashvili miscalculated that the U.S. and the rest of Europe would support his action and come to his defense. His subsequent rhetoric was aggravating, which provoked the Russians and produced natural consequences. German Chancellor Angela Merkel played second fiddle to him. Her popularity is at a very low ebb in Germany. Saakashvili should follow President Musharraf and tender his resignation before things get hotter in the region.
Henry Assen, BRUSSELS

Georgia is the logical consequence of the naive foreign policy of both the U.S. and the E.U. toward Russia. The next trouble spot: Greece? Croatia? Montenegro? And Serbia, of course. Kosovo cannot stand on its own feet. It has no significant mineral resources, no significant agriculture and no significant industry that could attract foreign investors. Put alongside this the stationing of rockets in Poland, radar posts in the Czech Republic, and America's flirt-and-more with the states of the once "soft underbelly" of the (Soviet) Russian bear, among them Georgia. Russia had to react! We thought it a good idea to put a ring into the nose of the Russian bear in Kosovo, and the bear now drags the supposed bear tamer by his own rope over the bloodstained ground of Ossetia.
Volker Galperin, SYKE, GERMANY

Russia and the West
In getting it wrong, Samantha Power gets it more right than ever [Aug. 25]. Of course Putin is the real driving force of Russian aggression, and not his mouthpiece President Medvedev. While being rightly proud of its recent astonishing development, Russia is at the same time on the brink of a tour of conquest to restore its lost empire. We all know what happened the last time it did so: this Georgian adventure will not be its last.
Maarten Molenaar, VEENENDAAL, THE NETHERLANDS

Exploiting the Poor
The burden of skyrocketing inflation; the food and fuel crises caused by the policies of greedy, incompetent politicos and dictators; the ever widening gaps between the rich and the hardworking common people are a curse not only in India but the world over — including in so-called communist countries like China, with their cheap slave labor [Aug. 25]. Maybe in the future the world will get accountable, secular democracies, and the U.S. and U.K. will lead the world as role models. Until then, the world must suffer from the sins of profiteers.
Vijay Bansal, WARRINGTON, ENGLAND

Drug Money
It seems to me useless for the U.S. to pour millions of dollars into Mexico's fight against narcos when the U.S. is the largest cocaine consumer in the world [Aug. 25]. Why doesn't it use that money to create programs for people to break the habit, or create programs like those in some European countries of legalizing and controlling consumption? The druglords in Mexico will continue to thrive as long as they have customers in the States.
Susana Pérez, MEXICO CITY

• Adversity and Character; What Becomes a Leader Most?; What's Next for China