Madam, - As someone born in America but living in Ireland for 37 years, I follow the US election with a distant but instinctive interest. A sinking feeling has grown in me in the last days, as the Clintons' dirty campaigning and Barack Obama's failure to seal a victory make one suspect that America's latent racism and xenophobia will not allow a black candidate to become President.
My parents often spoke of Al Smith, the first Catholic and Irish-rooted candidate for the presidency, who lost in a landslide to Herbert Hoover in 1928. He had been an outstanding governor of New York and they felt he was a great figure, but the time for the US to accept a Catholic or an Irishman as president had not yet come. It was 32 years later that John F Kennedy won by a thread.
It is a grim thought that the most powerful country in the world, and the champion of "democracy", might not yet be ready to accept a leader with dark skin or an expanded world view. I hope my creeping dread is proven wrong. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK LYDON,
Callan,
Co Kilkenny.