What You Said About …

GOP WAVE

David Von Drehle’s Nov. 17 cover story on the Republican Party’s dominant showing in the Nov. 4 elections touched a nerve in some readers. “When all the deluded poor/middle class lose everything, the Democrats will again boast of 80% approval ratings,” wrote Jorge Paez of Austin. Byron Smith of Plainfield, N.J., called the win “impressive” but warned that “real change would require a step away from the politics of retribution by not spending the next two years trying to undo the last six.” Opinions varied on our cover, which put Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell on the iconic Obama campaign poster from 2008. “For McConnell, this is a pretty great way to start the day,” wrote Mediabistro’s Fishbowl NY. But Virginia Burke of Annapolis, Md., found the Kentuckian’s winning approach “cynical in the extreme” and suggested an alternate tagline: “opposition should be McConnell’s poster title, not change.”

VETERANS

Readers had emotional reactions to our profiles of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans at home and to James Nachtwey’s photographs of their recovery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. “Where are the mass demonstrations?” wrote Peter Paul of Surry, Va. “Where is the outrage regarding the seemingly casual attitude these days in sending our kids off to fight ill-conceived battles?” Warren Dugan of Glendale, Wis., was struck by the courage of former Army Staff Sergeant James Fitzgerald: “Not only did he take ownership of a fellow soldier’s death, he came out to his fellow soldiers and now the world.”

HILLARY’S MOMENT

Joe Klein’s analysis of what it would take for Clinton to win in 2016 prompted TIME.com reader AlphaJuliette to worry about the backlash: “Despite the fact that she is eminently qualified, she would be a huge target for a vicious, no-holds-barred, anti-Hillary campaign by the Republicans.” Others, like timlhowe, disagreed: “Even in this horrible climate, she wins in a walk.”

LIGHTBOX

Among the stark closeups in Martin Schoeller’s new book, Portraits, are these images of chef April Bloomfield and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk jumping off his kitchen counter. To get the resistant athlete in action, Schoeller, who shot this week’s cover story on Taylor Swift, enlisted Hawk’s wife. “She basically talked him into it,” he says. To see Schoeller’s portraits of subjects like Johnny Cash and George Clooney, go to lightbox.time.com.

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