The Best Man

To the Editors:

Thousands of readers of NYR have already begun the excruciating ordeal of arguments about voting for “the lesser evil.” I have found that the best expedient is to say right off that Nixon is probably the lesser evil, and back it up any way that is handy. By and large, this will make the evenings less wearing. Take a tip.

With the worst will in the world, Gore Vidal [Sept. 12] could not make Nixon seem particularly malign. In fact, Dick Nixon (!), like that French premier whose name slips me, is “the post to which they hitch the chariot of State when the horses are tired.” Up to now the difficulty has been that he is just the type that the Americans could not possibly buy; but the Democrats have solved it by offering the one type that, in the present weary world, they could buy even less, an enthusiastic tinhorn.

Paul Goodman

Makapuu, Hawaii