Letter: Clinton at bay

Sir: Fergal Keane ("Clinton is not Nixon: he's much worse than that", 19 September) is quite right: "Democracy itself is being debased." The problem is that Fergal Keane himself is part of the process.

An electorate before whom the media had spread all of the evidence needed to make a decision on Bill Clinton's character and morality elected him president twice, in free and fair elections. Fergal Keane - and others less reputable - disapprove of that choice. It is even possible that some of the people have changed their minds and now regret the decision they made. Tough.

Democracy is about the people taking responsibility for its mistakes. It is not about giving moral guardians the power to correct those mistakes for them. Clinton may, or may not, be "a mendacious chancer" with "a contempt for the ideal of justice". He may also be a man of enormous inner resilience, physical strength and emotional stamina. To argue that the negative opinion means he deserves to be driven from office, or to imply that because he deserves to be driven from office the state should be subverted is dangerous nonsense.

GEOFF KEY

Preston, Lancashire