How would Obama stand up to more dangerous demagogues?

THE REV. Jeremiah Wright issue is not just a distraction from Senator Barack Obama's campaign for president, and its importance is not as a reflection of Obama's own views. As a voter, I am looking for any and all indications of the candidates' character and leadership. It seems that Obama's strength, his ability to appreciate multiple viewpoints, is also a dangerous weakness when it degenerates into naive moral relativism and paralysis instead of action. If Obama has trouble handling the petty demagoguery of Wright, who just has a big mouth, how will he handle the truly dangerous demagoguery of tyrants such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who may back up their toxic views with violence and horrific weaponry? This gives me pause.

MARK SENDOR
Sharon

IT WAS encouraging to read the many May 1 letters regarding the ongoing Obama-Wright drama. It seems that most readers are not too concerned with what Wright is spewing. They still believe in Obama's singular message.

We all know that Rev. Wrights are a dime a dozen. Call it hate speech or free speech, call it good theater or the word of God, the bottom line is that the pulpit, for better or for worse, belongs to its minister.

This is by no means an unusual political jam to be in. The Globe pinpoints the real issue in its May 1 editorial "Rev. Wright, the sequel": "Obama's handling of the Wright debacle may, arguably, reflect upon his style of leadership: Can the senator work himself out of political jams?" Politics is also partly theater. A great visionary does not always make a great leader. You need thick skin. Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan, for example, would have squashed this like a bug, and moved on. But Obama's nose remains bent out of shape. You can see it in his face, his walk, and his current defeated tone, leaving the impression that he resents that he has to deal with it in the first place. As a president, you may not like everything that comes your way, but you better be able to handle it. Or at least act like you can.

ANNA MAUDE
Hingham

PATRICK FLEENOR'S prediction of crime and "lawlessness" ("Beacon Hill's gift to the black market," Op-ed, April 26) is not just a transparent attempt to scare legislators and the public who support a tobacco tax increase. It also happens to be the same argument tobacco companies have falsely made in the past when confronted with popular support for taxing their deadly product.

Forget fear, let's remember facts. Each year 9,000 adults die from smoking in Massachusetts, and 8,300 more kids become newly addicted daily smokers. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that smoking-caused health costs and productivity losses in Massachusetts total more than $19.49 per pack sold in the state.

Increasing the tax on cigarettes is proven to be one of the most effective tobacco prevention and control strategies. A $1 increase in the Massachusetts tax could prevent 46,000 kids from becoming addicted adult smokers, and could prompt more than 25,000 adult smokers to quit.

What we should fear is not a black market of tobacco products, but the lengths to which tobacco companies will go to stay in the black.

MARC HYMOVITZ
Director of government relations and advocacy
American Cancer Society, New England Division
Boston

RE "UNION organizes a mass rally to protest attack on reputation" (City & Region, April 30): I am a proud daughter of a 30-year veteran of the Bridgeport, Conn., fire department who served as a captain before his retirement. I grew up around firefighters and firehouses, and my dad and his comrades were my heroes. It saddens me to read the attitudes of many Boston-area firefighters. I watched my father struggle with the decision to report and/or send home an impaired firefighter, and this is when there was no drug or alcohol testing, little help, and few programs.

How can these firefighters not want to have mandatory testing to help not only their peers but the public at large? They say they are willing to put it in the contract, but need concessions from the city. This is like plea bargaining with criminals? I know that is a harsh comparison, but I am a nurse with many years' experience in substance abuse and psychiatry, and know how enabling some forms of "help" can be, and how manipulative people with substance-abuse issues can be.

NANCY CROUSE
Quincy