RE "LET'S focus on Obama's views, not Wright's" (Scot Lehigh, Op-ed, April 30): When it comes to presidential election and the candidates involved, many people vote for the person they think has the best judgment. For the past eight years Democrats have been outspoken about the judgments made by President Bush on a variety of issues. On many of those I would agree. Since the Rev. Jeremiah Wright saga began, many have been saying forget about what Wright says, it only matters what Obama says. I am sorry, but it was Barack Obama's choice to join that church and bring his kids there every week to listen to Wright. Does this not show a lack of good judgment on Obama's part? His association with certain people makes a huge difference on whether I will vote for him.
Based on the judgments I have seen Senator Obama make, I do not think he is fit to be president.
CHRIS SMITH
West Bridgewater
THE DOUBLE standard that overlooks outrageous and inflammatory comments by white preachers, while blowing up similar statements by black ones far out of proportion ("Let's focus on Obama's views, not Wright's"), is only one aspect of a vicious smear campaign that has tried to connect Barack Obama with almost every negative figure imaginable, especially black ones, ones with Muslim names, or both.
This has included endless focus on Obama's middle name, circulation of pictures of him in Somali tribal garb, and the spread of innuendo to the effect that Obama supports Louis Farrakhan, the Black Panthers, the Weathermen, and black liberation theology, not to mention the false but persistent rumor that Obama is a Muslim. If Jeremiah Wright did not already exist, he would have been invented.
ROGER ALGASE
New York
IN YOUR April 30 edition (Page A8), Peter S. Canellos questioned Barack Obama's judgment in waiting so long to disavow all association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Let's not forget the context of what must surely have been a complex 20 years of membership in a church where Obama, his wife, and two small children were involved.
Obama joined a church to practice his faith with his family; he did not shamelessly solicit the endorsement of fundamentalist preachers, as John McCain did with John Hagee and Pat Robertson.
"Straight talk" McCain has pandered to a lunatic fringe of the religious right for political advantage in direct contradiction to positions he had previously taken. Where's the judgment there?
Nor did Obama sink to the rhetorical standard of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by issuing threats to obliterate a whole country, as Hillary Clinton may have done in commenting on Iran. And Obama has not needed to make fatuous exaggerations about his heroism under fire.
It seems to me that Obama's judgment is anchored in a longstanding commitment to his multifaceted religious connections. McCain's is anchored in pandering, Clinton's in bellicose puffery.
Nobody's judgment is 100 percent correct 100 percent of the time. Given the choice, I can support Obama's perfectly human judgment lapse, if this indeed is what it was, over that of his two rivals any day.
JOHN LeBARON
Cullowhee, N.C.
