CLASSIC STEIN
Re: Ben Stein’s The Daddy Trap:

Ben: You made me cry. Thanks. Could anyone have said it better? Anyone?
— Dave Simon
Prospect, Kentucky

EXIT POLLS
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.’s The Woman in Kerry’s Future:

Hello, Mr. R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

You just write articles with comments that show how easily Hillary could become V.P. to make me run out of the room screaming, don’t you?
— Carole

Mr. Tyrrell may very well be correct in his piece. I just can’t help but think that if I’m Kerry, I don’t want the brightest light on my ticket to be my number two. I want it to be me. And Kerry is not a bright light compared to Hillary (shudder). I can see it now. “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE NEXT PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE USA, HILLARY and oh, yeah, John Kerry too.”
— Bill Deady
Manchester, New Hampshire

Since Hillary has indicated a strong interest in the crux of Ralph Nader’s campaign, and we know that she does not want a Democrat to win and keep her out of the White House for another eight years, you missed the obvious — she will be Nader’s vice-presidential candidate.
— Bruce Cornett

“The Clintons might become active again”? Since when were they ever inactive? They’re there — like rats in a granary, gnawing away in secret at the booty.
— Nancy Bronwell
Texas

If Hillary Clinton were to go on the ticket with John Kerry it would require her to flip her position on several issues in order to show unity with Kerry. Joe Lieberman did this when he joined Al Gore in the 2000 race and paid for it in terms of loss of credibility. It might help explain his very poor showing in the recent primaries. I doubt Hillary would want to risk that. I also tend to doubt she’d want to have to deal with the heat and questions such flip-flopping would provoke.
— Dick Melville
Ozone Park, New York

If Hillary is added to the ticket and she and Mr. Kerry win the White House, is it proper for her to offer the V.P. office to Mrs. Kerry since that was protocol in the Clinton White House? Also, what is the proper seating arrangement for Mr. Clinton? After all, with his track record in the Oval Office, the man will require a good deal of privacy.

Confused in Catharpin,
— Brian G. Fortin
Catharpin, Virginia

If I were John Kerry, knowing Hillary’s past history of “friends,” colleagues,” and enemies dropping dead of mysterious circumstances, I would think LONG & HARD before even asking or allowing her to become my Vice President!
— Clay Miller
Brandon, Mississippi

I read this. My stomach turned, my world tilted — and I lost my lunch:(
— unsigned

TAKE NOTE
Re: Todd Anderson’s Rock ‘n’ Rolled Over:

Ted Nugent is a voice for conservatism/libertarianism in rock. He is not as mainstream as he was in the 70s/80s, but he has his We the People Foundation, foundations to support the second amendment, a camp for kids, etc. I also found another site called conservativepunk.com. It is dedicated to refuting the whiny left wing pop punk acts. I think on of the influential voices that inspired it was Johnny Ramone of the Ramones who is a conservative. I do however agree that like in Hollywood, uninformed liberalism is the norm for the music industry.
— Adam Grace

CROSSOVER REPUBLICAN
Re: John Tabin’s Stuck With Kerry:

John Tabin mentioned exit polls in Georgia, Maryland and Ohio that showed John Edwards won among Republicans and self-described conservatives.

The same was true in Tennessee where he came in second place above Wesley Clark. I vote Republican but I crossed over in the Tenn. primary and elected to vote on the Democrat ballot. I intended to vote for Clark since he, at the time, was putting what eggs he had left in his basket into the state. But before voting I checked the exit polls so far and saw Edwards was the likely second place winner. In the booth, I voted for Edwards.

I don’t know about Maryland, but in Tennessee, Georgia, and I think Ohio, anyone can vote on any ballot they choose. Many, many Republicans and conservatives crossed over to help tweak the Democratic primary. I wanted Edwards to stay in until Super Tuesday on March 2nd and he did. I wanted him to keep fighting, keep spending money and keep Kerry spending his.

So it requires a heck of a lot of ability to spin or lie or to be just plain delusional as when we saw Edwards and Kerry, along with moron pundits on TV, argue about who is connecting better to independents and Republicans based on their votes in open primary states.
— Greg Barnard
Franklin, Tennessee

VIVE LES DIFFERENCES!
Re: Robert Croft’s letter (“Freedom Follies”) in Reader Mail’s Power Outrages:

French words in TAS? Ah, mon Dieu! However, I can empathize with your dilemma, M. Croft, since a few years stand between my three years of French and moi. But we must keep up with the Kerrys, certainement! So if I need a translation, I go to www.dictionary.com and click on “Translator.” Folie de grandeur means madness of size, and épater les bourgeois means to impress middle-class men.

Ce n’est rien!
— Kitty Myers
Painted Post, New York

Mr. Croft: I too am an IT person, arisen from the ’70s. But take heart my fellow cubicle denizen! A lot of the readers of Spectator would not fathom any of these either: RAID, RFID, “Inward subjoin of the main index,” OSI, ISO, 802.11x, or “subfunction stack fault.” Just as incomprehensible and it’s in English!
— John McGinnis
Arlington, Texas