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National Review, June 2, 2008 by Clinton Braganza

I had to do a double take, and pinch myself, when I read the words "his deadbeat Kenyan father and his hippiescrewball white mother" ("The Hopeless Pastor," May 19). I found it hard to believe you would characterize Barack Obama's parents that way.

We need to conduct public discussions during this election season with composure, and with respect for our opponents. We should not stir up passions or foment irrationality.

Clinton Braganza

Via e-mail

THE EDITORS RESPOND: Well, we might have explained that Obama's mother has been described by friends as a "fellow traveler" and "the original feminist," and by Obama as "a lonely witness for secular humanism, a soldier for New Deal, Peace Corps, position-paper liberalism." We might have mentioned her penchant for Indonesian handicrafts or her Ph.D. in anthropology. And we might have explained that Obama's father ran off when the audacious, hopeful little tyke was two. But would that have been half as fun?