ELECTION 96
Bill Clinton took a verbal licking, kept on ticking and won by a landslide [ELECTION 96, Nov. 18]. He ran an optimistic campaign focused on the future. Bob Dole ran for the title of Meanest Man in America. The outrage backfired on Dole. Ross Perot ran a super-paranoid blitzkrieg assault. Character assassination and hate politics must not be utilized as tactics to win an election (period). Campaign-finance reform is needed, and campaign-hate reform too. President Clinton will lead America forward into the 21st century with a lot of hope, vision and dreams for a better nation for all! JAY RANDAL Ormond Beach, Florida
The most interesting aspect of this election is that Clinton in effect established a new party--one that appealed to the current moderate instincts of most Americans while offering hope for women, nonwhites and the growing bloc of people who feel "disadvantaged." And the Republicans didn't have a clue about how to counter this agenda. The election result was a foregone conclusion. JAMES P. FENTRESS East Granby, Connecticut
Bubba Clinton fooled us once; shame on him. Now he's fooled us twice; shame on us. JIMMY C. REED JR. Oxford, Mississippi
Like him or not, the "Comeback Kid," William Jefferson Clinton, is undoubtedly one of the century's greatest politicians. Many were prepared to write his political obituary after the Gingrich Revolution. But Clinton has handled himself with grace and dignity despite constant criticism during his tenure as President. He is proof that character can be shaped not only on a wartime battlefield but in political wars as well. BETH E. CECIL Fort Pierce, Florida
For the first time in our nation's 207-year history of presidential elections, less than 50% of voting-age Americans cast ballots. In receiving almost 50% of the votes cast, Bill Clinton managed to capture only 24% of the voting-age pool, hardly a serious mandate. If ever a statistic reflected Americans' disenchantment with their government, this is it. Sadly, most Americans view the system as broken. Worse, they see little or nothing they can do to fix it by voting, so they stay home in droves. It is small wonder that voters put a Democrat in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress. We call it damage control.
What does this bode for the electorate? Unfortunately, it means more of the partisan wrangling and posturing that so many of us have grown to loathe. Only in Washington is it fashionable to suggest, "If it's broke, don't fix it," and find that advice being taken literally. BILL GEMAR Gila Bend, Arizona
Say what you may about Bill Clinton's character--which has been the focus of two unsuccessful Republican attempts to keep him out of office--no one can argue that he hasn't brought the American people back to some traditional Christian values. For example, he has asked us to forgive him not seven times but 70 times seven times--and for some reason, we have. MICHAEL AMATI Ithaca, New York