' "I Found My Own Voice" ': Readers debated the "tangled issues" swirling around Hillary Clinton. "I agree she's found her voice—only it's Bill Clinton's," one said. Another asked, "Can you imagine Margaret Thatcher or Golda Meir getting teary on TV?" Others were supportive. "It's a mistake to minimize electing a woman versus a black man—and a sign of our blindness to the oppression that women have endured," one wrote. Another said: "The contrarians of New Hampshire wouldn't be manipulated into voting for the latest media darling."

On 'Health for Life': "While urologists like to point to the decline of deaths from advanced prostate cancer in the United States and claim it is from screening with the PSA test, deaths are also declining in Canada, Europe and Australia, where the PSA test is not used."
Ben Bassaro, New York, N.Y.

Hillary Clinton Finds Her Voice
As a female of a certain age group, perhaps I'm the type of voter who should have been nudged by Hillary Clinton's comment "I found my own voice" ("Letting Hillary Be Hillary," Jan. 21). I'm not a cynic, nor a Clinton hater, but I certainly expected that by now every presidential contender would be in quite solid possession of his or her "own voice." At a minimum, the comment is trite and manipulative, but if sincere, I find it a frightening admission from a candidate for the position of commander in chief and leader of the free world.
Sharon Camino
Pittsburgh, Pa.

I applaud Sen. Hillary Clinton for seeking the presidency. She is a formidable, brilliant, vital and qualified candidate. The best candidate to represent women is apt to be a woman. Yet historically, women have been absent from the presidential ballot and female voters have reluctantly relinquished and forfeited their vote for the "better man." Perhaps in this presidential race, Clinton can galvanize and inspire women to vote, as in the case of New York's 2000 senatorial race, when 60 percent of registered voters tallied were women. Do the math: it adds up. If politicians fail to address the concerns of women voters, they lose. Hillary Clinton fights the battle for all women, and when Hillary wins, so do all women.
Susan Marie Davniero
Lindenhurst, N.Y.

Before being overcome by the press's rhapsodizing over Hillary Clinton's comeback in New Hampshire, let me make sure I have something straight. When our nation's first viable female presidential candidate has a setback, like slipping to third place in the Iowa caucuses, her instinct is to tear up in public and sic Bill Clinton on her foes? In other words, when this paragon of feminism feels threatened, she cries and has her husband fix things. Do I have that wrong? If that's progress, I'll vote for the other guy.
Gary Sherwood
Santa Rosa, Calif.

No one is better poised to become president—regardless of whether she is the first viable woman candidate—than Hillary Clinton. So she choked up a little at a town meeting. How about NFL player Terrell Owens after his team's playoff loss? If men can cry, why can't women? The 2008 campaign has been overanalyzed. Showing some emotion, instead of just spouting sound bites, might well win the election. The American populace wants to connect, and tears are a common denominator.
Paul D'Argent
Nashville, Tenn.

As a Republican—now registered as a Democrat—I have listened to Hillary Clinton's argument about being "ready to lead from day one." It would certainly seem that she is. However, while she may have great ideas and programs, she might not be able to get much done. Her negatives are so high with Republicans and many independents that she may be stymied on day one. It would take only 41 Republicans in the Senate to shut off any change that she may want to achieve. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has made a life's work of dealing with Republicans in order to get things done. He's often willing to take half a loaf if that moves his ideas forward. Hillary is not. And we can't go another four or eight years of not being able to get past the Washington gridlock.
Mike Vice
Novato, Calif.

Legacy of a Mount Everest Explorer
Edmund Hillary went to Nepal to climb Mount Everest ("From Up High, a Noble View," Periscope, Jan. 21). He left behind schools, hospitals and health clinics. Today, climbers arrive with helicopters and TV cameras and in their wake leave a mountain littered with trash and corpses. Hillary was humble and selfless, insisting that he and Sherpa colleague Tenzing Norgay conquered the mountain as one, refusing the distinction of being the first. Climbers today pound their chests and stuff their bottomless egos with self-aggrandizement. With Sir Edmund Hillary's passing, much of the world's remaining grace, humility and reverence have vanished.
Michael E. White
Burbank, Calif.

Staying Healthy
As a healthy 72-year-old woman, I think your guidelines show great common sense ("A Guide to Predicting Your Medical Future," Health For Life, Jan. 21). The trick, though, is to get health-care providers to agree. The mind-set today seems to be a "one size fits all" style of medical testing that results in expensive diagnostic procedures being automatically ordered regardless of the patient's age, family history or wishes. We cannot and perhaps should not all be tested or medicated to fit into the same box, and to do so is a waste of valuable health-care resources.
Dorothy Barton
Lawrenceville, Ga.

As a neurologist, neuroscientist and ethicist who has spent a quarter century working on the challenge of so-called Alzheimer's disease and being an avid reader of NEWSWEEK, I lament the two articles on this topic. In "65 Years and Older," we learn that simple phone tests can be used to detect Alzheimer's before symptoms emerge. In reality, while such tests can detect memory difficulties, they cannot produce a diagnosis. Somewhat contradictorily, in "How to Solve Three Puzzles," we learn that an expensive combination of as-yet-uncertain neuroimaging and spinal-fluid tests will need to be used in the future to identify those who will progress from so-called mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's. Both sections emphasize the importance of drugs and convey the usual enthusiastic hype about developing therapies. Unfortunately, what I used to call Alzheimer's is not a single condition waiting to be fixed. It includes various processes that affect us all to one degree or another as we age. Some of these processes start early in life, as you suggest. In fact, exposure of very young children to the increasing number of environmental toxins, such as lead, should be part of our program of prevention.
Peter J. Whitehouse, M.D., PH.D.
Professor of Neurology Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio

Correction
The Dec. 31/Jan. 7 caption for a photo by Balazs Gardi accompanying the Periscope article "Alone, Afraid, in the Company of Men Dreaming of Death" incorrectly implied that the boy in the picture had been wounded by a Taliban suicide bomber. In fact, the child was injured by an airstrike from U.S. forces. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.