Clinton’s ‘Big Picture’

So, President Clinton thinks we’re in a political “funk” because he has tried to “do too much” (“President Sees a Duty to Explain ‘Big Picture,’ ” Sept. 24). Just what has he done? The President also said that he had failed to explain his “core values” to the public. Well, Mr. President, actions speak louder than words.

Clinton suggested that there is too much “near-news” (which he compared to near-beer) that is competing with real news, confusing people, “ . . . There is a danger that too much stuff crammin’ in on people’s mind is just as bad for them as too little.” Maybe we the voters need to decide whether we want a President who is afraid we might find out too much.

ROBERT D. FRANCIS

Westminster

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I made the mistake of reading The Times (Sept. 24) while not yet fully awake, and for one terrifying moment I thought I had awakened in 1978! Was it Jimmy Carter informing us we were in a national “malaise,” or Bill Clinton telling us we were in a “political funk”? Which President had allowed himself to “become enmeshed in policy details”--Carter or Clinton? And which one would have been “better served” if the (implied) American people had only just “understood some of the big picture more”?

The paper fell from my numbed hands only to reveal that Johnnie Cochran had received much acclaim and applause while attending the Congressional Black Caucus banquet. I realized I was safely secure in 1995.

Of course, now I am in a funk.

RICHARD T. JACOBSON JR.

Encino