Reading your front page recounting increasing endorsements and money for Barack Obama (Obama’s perfect weekend: Ahead in polls, record fundraising – and Colin Powell too, October 20) might lead the reader to think that the Democratic candidate is closing in more and more on the presidency.
But despite all the endorsements and money, Obama’s lead has really not changed significantly over the last few months. And that lead is not big enough to offset either the last-minute effect of repugnant Republican distortions and the race vote. These two effects could still lead to John McCain getting elected.
I am not just arguing from statistics. I am an American who has lived in and around the south for much of my life, and I do not underestimate the deep-seated resentments of racism, and their consequences for election-day turnout.
This election campaign has turned into a battle for America’s soul, and on election day I may be hoping for the best but will be expecting the worst.
Thomas Crowley
East Linton, East Lothian
In today’s political climate it is refreshing to encounter a politician strong enough to speak their mind and stand up for what they believe, even if this means stepping away from the party line (In praise of… Colin Powell, October 20). I hope that the American public take heed of Powell’s honest and fair approach to the presidential election and vote, not through loyalty to a political party or racial origin, but rather loyalty to their country; because if they are truly patriotic then they will vote in the way that will serve America best.
Vicky Lumley
Glasgow
I am a US citizen who has lived overseas for 20 years. I am one of the record number of newly registered voters in Pennsylvania, having never participated in an election before. But I had my application for a vote denied three times, despite being eligible and completing the forms properly (Ballot debacle predicted for November 4, October 22).
To vote in primaries, allegiance to a party must be declared on the voter registration form. Partisan officials processing these forms can then cause problems for potential voters of the "wrong" party – I had to appeal to the local official’s superiors, and it took me three months to register. It would seem that recording party allegiance on the electoral roll has the potential to allow manipulation of who is able to register and vote. The US needs to modernise the primary voting system to stop this happening in future.
Emma Giffard
Barnstaple, Devon
In this presidential race I know everything about "Joe the Plumber" and the effect that Sarah Palin’s devastating wink will have on the outcome of the race. However hard I may try, I can’t find out who the other contestants are, although there are distant rumours that there are at least 10 other political parties, including the Socialist party and the Greens, throwing their hats into the ring. Presumably their names will be on the ballot papers, so it might be encouraging for us Europeans, and even the Americans, to know that you are allowed to have other viewpoints in the US – even if you don’t have billions of dollars falling from your back pocket. Could the Guardian help a little in spreading the message of third parties who probably have only a very few dimes (but some interesting ideas)?
John Marjoram
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Although George Monbiot thinks the employment of millions in Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, planting trees and preventing soil erosion, was the most successful constituent of New Deal policies (If an hour is a long time in politics, we must start thinking in centuries, October 22), it was vitiated by a failure to bring about profound attitudinal shifts.
Roosevelt wanted Americans to conserve resources not just for people then alive but for "the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction", concluding with a peroration that I hope Obama will be inspired to act upon: "Our duty … bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations".
Ron Noon
Liverpool John Moores University
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