To The Editor:
Regarding your editorial in the weekend edition (Editorial: “Obama bungles his mandate,” May 17, Page A10), I think we need to remember that, when we elect a president, we are not electing a dictator who will have the power to issue orders and enforce them, nationally or internationally. The president of the United States is rather the orchestrator of a large and quarrelsome conversation that includes parties with sharply differing agendas and priorities.
If this conversation is to produce anything of value to humanity, all the parties need to be kept involved, no matter how sharply and intractably they may differ.
The rate of progress in any direction is directly dependent on the depth and intractability of the disagreements, and this is something over which no president can have any control.
Betty King
Woolwich
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