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TIME

Obama Wins
Congratulations to President Obama on his re-election and to TIME for its commemorative issue on the election, with all those intriguing side stories, a lot of telling pictures, numbers, charts and graphs, plus the history of the presidency. The cover story by David Von Drehle was most admirable [“For Obama, Survival Is the New Winning,” Nov. 19]. And the election culminated in the two most encouraging parts of the whole saga: the gracious bowing out of the loser, and the bright and beaming expression on the face of the winner.
Reimon Bachika,
Kobe, Japan

This is appalling. We have just been through weeks of suffering from the process of the U.S. presidential election. But while we shudder with relief that it’s over, we are slapped with a double issue of postmortem on the subject. Where is the news, please?
John McClatchie,
Rawene, New Zealand

Now that Obama doesn’t have to worry about re-election, he should work hard to prove he deserves his Nobel Peace Prize and help achieve peace in the Middle East as he promised.
Fayez Suidan,
Beirut

In the thorough double issue about the election, I noticed that there was no attempt to address how democratic the election process was. I would have welcomed comments on why only roughly half of those entitled to vote used their right to do so, what the demographic characteristics of the abstainers are and whom they might have voted for. What can be done to significantly increase voter participation, and might turnout increase and queuing time be decreased if, for example, the polling day were changed from Tuesday to Sunday?
Trond Foyn,
Asker, Norway

On Nov. 7, at the high school where I work, everybody talked about the U.S. presidential election all day, and they all expressed the same sense of relief about the outcome. The students, in particular, are aware that the election will have a direct impact on their future when it comes to the economy, issues of war and peace, and most importantly, confronting global warming.
Paul Wigelius,
Stockholm

Re “Inside the Secret World of Quants and Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win” [Nov. 19]: Your thoughtful and diversified postelection analysis, the different aspects regarding the campaign, parties and the media made for a fascinating read. The piece about the data miners was especially eye-opening — and scary as well. It made me wonder: Is an election still about who has the best ideas for the country, or is it just a contest about who has the smartest people and software working for his or her campaign?
Sven Ole Schubert,
Berlin

The President must find a way to work with a divided Congress and address the automatic spending cuts and tax increases that will come into force at the end of the year. For the Republicans, their divisive politics and regressive social agenda seem to have alarmed large sections of the working class, women and minorities. To survive, they need to adapt to the changing demographics in America and widen their political base.
Dilbag Rai,
Chandigarh, India

Re: “Obama’s Mandate for Moderation” [Nov. 19]: Joe Klein rightly states that “Obama no longer has to worry about electoral politics, but his most immediate challenge is to become a more effective politician.” If a President is elected for only one term, he or she never has to worry about this and can try right away to be an effective politician.
W. Joris Witkam,
Beauvechain, Belgium

As usual, Fareed Zakaria was very sensible in his column [“How to Rebuild Trust — and Infrastructure,” Nov. 19]. For Obama, it would be a wonderful move to conquer bipartisanship by appointing Mitt Romney as CEO of American infrastructure. As the former CEO of Bain and the Salt Lake City Olympics, he has proved himself a number-crunching genius. Let Romney do the math!
Kees Beentjes,
Castricum, The Netherlands

Storm Signal
Congratulations to Michael Grunwald for his laudable essay [“Sandy Ends the Silence,” Nov. 19]. At last someone has the courage to come out and admit the link between violent storms like Sandy and climate change. It is time for people to realize that strong storms are no freak of nature but are directly related to the way they use energy. We can make a long-term difference, something that will have an effect on our children and grandchildren, if only we strive to conserve energy now, in our everyday lives. Politicians could lead the way by pushing clean-energy legislation. In light of global warming, only a fool would consider fossil fuels an energy source of the future. Stubbornly clinging to them will endanger generations to come.
Mark Hartzheim,
Cologne, Germany

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