Apparently to Robert McNamara's mortification, Errol Morris, whose film "The Fog of War" I discussed recently, passes over his subject's 13-year stint running the World Bank, whither he was dispatched by LBJ, Medal of Freedom in hand. McNamara brandishes his Bank years as his moral redemption, and all too often his claim is accepted by those who have no knowledge of the actual ghastly record. In fact, the McNamara of the World Bank evolved naturally, organically, from the McNamara of Vietnam. The best terse account of the McNamara years is in Bruce Rich's excellent history of the Bank, "Mortgaging the Earth," published in 1994.

Harvey Wasserman is right about a lot of things in his Jan 22 column but he's wrong on forgetting the south in the presidential campaign. Only by working hard in the south and making a real contest out of it, will the democratic nominee get a national message across that will reverberate through the big electoral vote states. The nominee may not carry any southern states, but by showing that the south is part of the union from the nominee's point of view, he'll generate a huge local effort all across the south, elect democrats in close local and congressional races, cause Bush to have to spend time and resources in the south, but above all that he'll portray to the nation (and to the thousands of black and white voters in old dixie) that they count, they're important. And redneck pickup truck driving farmers (I'm one) will begin to see that voting Democratic is what they want to do.

 ivan swift -- madison county, alabama

As a senior American who cherishes our traditional "innocent until proven guilty" legal premise, I loathe the Bush administration's insistence upon paranoia as the basis for new, unreasonably restrictive public procedures here at home as well as for their offensive foreign policies.

I long to reclaim the country we had before the current regime took control.   All of us were freer, more hopeful, more genuinely secure, and -most important- more honorable.  

As I understood it, and as we were taught in our public schools, we "Americans" were a people who took pride in striving not for world domination, but for governance by respectable, enforceable laws, dedicated to just and compassionate ethics.  But now, every morning, I wake up and wonder: How much longer will we be forced to endure the arrogance and disgrace of these terror-mongers' trampling on that true American dream?

--Carole A. Kronberg
  Detroit

Engaged in a continuous PR blitz, presidential campaign strategists always strive to portray their candidate as damn near perfect. Even obvious flaws are apt to be touted as signs of integrity and human depth. Such media spin encourages Americans to confuse being excellent with being preferable.

     Eager to dislodge George W. Bush from the White House, many voters lined up behind John Kerry in late January. It’s true that the junior senator from Massachusetts is probably the best bet to defeat Bush -- and, as president, Kerry would be a very significant improvement over the incumbent. But truth in labeling should impel acknowledgment that Kerry is not a progressive candidate.

     Enthusiasm for a presidential contender often causes people to go overboard with their praise and lose touch with reality. On the left, a classic example came from the wonderful documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who declared in a mid-September open letter to Gen. Wesley Clark: “And you oppose war.” It was a preposterous statement about a retired four-star general who has never apologized for his commanding role in a war that inflicted more

My fellow American media consumers:

     At a time when news cycles bring us such portentous events as the remarkable wedding of Britney Spears, the advent of Michael Jackson’s actual trial proceedings and the start of the Democratic presidential primaries, it is time to reflect upon the state of the media union.

     The achievements are everywhere to be seen and heard.

     On more than a thousand radio stations owned by the Clear Channel conglomerate, the programming quality is as reliable as a Big Mac.

     In cities and towns across the nation, an array of outspoken radio talk-show hosts can be depended on to run the gamut from the mushy center to the far right.

     Television provides a wide variety of homogenized offerings. With truly impressive (production) values, the major networks embody a consummate multiplicity of sameness, with truncated imagination and consolidated ownership. These days, there’s a captivatingly unadventurous cable channel for virtually every niche market.

     A few naysayers like to disparage our system of mass communications.