The race for president

Re “It’s Obama,” Nov. 5

I am a 38-year-old black male. For all my life, I have considered myself an American. On Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, for the first time, I am finally convinced that America agrees with me.

Brian Thompson

Signal Hill

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Today, for the first time in my adult life, I am afraid to be an American.

Charlotte Sale

Placentia

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Re “Women, interrupted,” Opinion, Nov. 9

Vivian Gornick correctly points out that during the presidential campaign, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was “solely, repeatedly, insultingly [attacked], not as a Washington insider, or as a senator who endorsed the Iraq war, or as a member of a would-be political dynasty, but as a woman.” Yet, in the same vein, Gornick claims that the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin is the result of sexism and asserts that Palin was chosen because she was a “sexy, cheerleading fundamentalist.”

Palin was nominated because of her conservative positions and her ability to energize the Republican base around core conservative values.

Rather than take issue with Palin’s credentials and experience for national office, Gornick criticizes Palin based on the fact that she is a woman. Perhaps Gornick fails to see the hypocrisy in her contradictory positions on Clinton and Palin; however, I am sure Thomas Pynchon is taking notes for his next satire.

Yael Hartstein

Los Angeles