Mail Call: Debating Hillary

I worry about Hillary's motives and where she would take America. Americans should realize that the Clintons would do anything and say anything to win the White House. They've lost their sense of values and are not really concerned about serving people or helping the less fortunate. As powermongers, their minds are set to win. If they really cared for the Democratic Party, they would have stepped aside, as Obama seems to be the winner. They're destroying the party—their best bet would be to walk away from politics. Like everyone else in the world, I am tired of hearing of her "experience." Being a president's wife, having a law degree and having met foreign dignitaries do not give her the experience to run a country like the United States.
Helen Javenes
Kristiansand, Norway

If there is one thing Democrats should learn from the past eight years, it is this: good intentions are not enough to make a good president. Many in my generation are enthralled by Barack Obama's idealism, but idealism is not synonymous with positive change. As a twentysomething woman, I support Hillary Clinton not because she is a woman but because I want a president with proven competence. As a country, the United States can afford no less.
Leah Christensen
Missoula, Montana

I am a white woman who came of age in the 1950s and am grateful to Gloria Steinem and people like her who helped give me the courage to live my life fully and to stand up for what I believe in. Yes, I would love to see a woman lead our country in my lifetime. But I am supporting Barack Obama. For me, feminism is about taking charge of one's own life and making intelligent, responsible choices. Until the women's movement transformed my life, I lived too much under the sway of what my culture told me women "should" do or be. I deeply resent anyone who now tries to tell me—or any other feminist—that because we are women we "should" support Hillary Clinton.
Linda Plaut
Golden, Colorado

Your essays' discussion of gender highlights for me, a 30-year-old Democratic white woman, that Senator Clinton is not handicapped by being a woman. Rather, she has used gender and race to drive a wedge between core constituencies of the Democratic Party, fostering suspicion and distrust of a candidate who has just as much foreign-policy experience and concrete solutions as she does but who has not been married to a two-term president. If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination on this platform of fear and division, I will vote for her, but only because I recognize that future judicial and constitutional decisions weigh in the balance. However, I fear that the politics of power-mad alienation and hatred will continue; a mere change from Bush to Clinton will not stem the tide.
Susan Davis
Dublin, Ohio

As a woman who has finally seen the day when a woman is running for president, I am happy. I am 86 years old, a retired clergywoman, a mother and a grandmother who happens to be a feminist. After struggling with the issues, I voted for Barack Obama in the Maine primary. I believe in hope and I am certain that people will respond to his leadership when he is the president. His way of reaching the goal of being elected touches us deeply.
Fran Truitt
Blue Hill, Maine

I admire Hillary Clinton for her feistiness and her "it's not over until the fat lady sings" mentality, but I fear for the Democratic Party if it pitches itself with Clinton as its flag bearer against John McCain and a resurgent Republican Party. My country doesn't seem ready for a female president, and neither does America. How about the parties agreeing to make it an all-female affair? Then we could watch Clinton slug it out with Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi and maybe even Oprah Winfrey. But that won't happen—perhaps because the U.S. Constitution was written by "Founding Fathers"?
Cosmas Uzoma Odoemena
Lagos, Nigeria