Letters | 28 July 2012

Divisive he stands

Sir: Finally, a western European publication questions whether Barack Obama can be re-elected (‘No he can’t’, 21 July). Before Jacob Heilbrunn’s article I have seen nothing save lame re-writings of pieces from the New York and Washington media, which is still in thrall to Obama. 

Heilbrunn’s analysis is compelling: the President’s campaign is one of divisiveness, pitting supposedly forlorn and disaffected separate constituencies against ‘capitalism’. Sadly, this has been a traditional tactic of left-wing candidates in the US for a long time (e.g., John Edwards’s ‘Two Americas’) but now it has been turned into a high form by the President’s re-election team. A candidate may honourably lose if voters judge him less than competent, but if he is mean and divisive he deserves to lose.

Leonard Toboroff
Ramatuelle, France

The last grown-up

Sir: Douglas Murray (‘Children’s hour’, 21 July) asks: ‘What public figure would dare say that they like to read Stendhal in their spare hours?’ There is such a figure, at least in the United States, but the case confirms his thesis.