Letters: Cruz's VP pick won't stem Trump tide
Let's give Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz some credit - he may be metaphorically drowning, but he's still a shrewd, calculating politician trying to stay afloat. Alas, selecting former technology executive Carly Fiorina as his running mate is a bit akin to trying to bail out a sinking Titanic with a tablespoon. It is far too little, far too late.
ISSUE | CAMPAIGN 2016
Cruz's VP pick won't stem Trump tide
Let's give Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz some credit - he may be metaphorically drowning, but he's still a shrewd, calculating politician trying to stay afloat. Alas, selecting former technology executive Carly Fiorina as his running mate is a bit akin to trying to bail out a sinking Titanic with a tablespoon. It is far too little, far too late.
Running mates rarely have great impact, unless it is a disastrously poor pick, such as Sarah Palin, and even then it is rarely the deciding factor. Not to dismiss or demean Fiorina - she is a powerful orator who can generate a newsworthy sound bite - but she simply does not have the appeal to move the needle, as evidenced by her failed presidential bid.
So, kudos to Cruz for effort, but this ploy smacks of desperation against the Donald Trump tidal wave that has swamped his opposition. All that remain are 10 primaries, starting with Indiana's on Tuesday, and they seem to be little more than a formality.
Ken Derow, Swarthmore
Donald's critics: Becoming what they hate?
A letter writer has decided that 892,702 Pennsylvanians are intrinsically evil and hate-filled people who deserve to be publicly condemned in the most prominent paper in Pennsylvania for voting for Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump ("Pennsylvania voters have cast their lot," Thursday). I have to wonder: Who has hate in his heart - the voters or the letter writer?
Sharon Breen, Lansdale
The eyes have it
My facial-expression pundit friends tell me that Mary Pat Christie was doing a side eye, not an eye roll, when standing behind The Donald as he lobbed sexist blather at Hillary "Woman Card" Clinton. If that is a proper call, then Gov. Christie was right in denying any rolling of the eyes ("Christie about wife: 'That was not an eye roll,' " Friday).
Of course, side eye is a slightly more furtive way of expressing the roll-associated reaction.
Don DeMarco, Philadelphia, donald.demarco@verizon.net