George,

As one who has lived through, and opposed, many (perhaps most) of the anti-Madisonian developments Mr. Ross records in his indictment of Barrack Obama, I welcome his summary of this part of the dark side of American history. My friend, the late Howard Zinn, takes this dark story back to the nation's origins. Both writers effectively undermine the claims so often made of American exceptionalism, a claim I have always thought stems from feelings of insecurity or inferiority.

All this said, if we are to take Mr. Ross's indictment of Obama in signing the defense bill as a cause for abandoning or even lessening our support of him in the 2012 presidential election we risk a decision as grave as those Mr. Ross recites. With the exception of Jon Huntsman (whom the Republicans reject because he believes in reason, evidence, and civil discourse) there is no Republican candidate left standing one can trust not to bring the nation to even greater grief.

Obama, actually, is not just the lesser of two evils. He has a record we can celebrate, however much it may fail to come up to our full wishes. He also has the character and the values we can hope to trust to make him sensitive to the kind of criticisms Mr. Ross and others level. But he can't do that unless we re-elect him. That should be our major commitment of 2012.

Paul Gaston (Electronic mail, January 13, 2012)

P.S. Having just read Mark Lane's new book: The Last Word, his final work on the CIA culpability in the JFK assassination, one wonders about who put the bomb on that motorcycle in Iran. Much to wonder and worry about.