Letters: Presidential race

Presidential race

Sir: Your report on the Iowa straw poll omits the most revealing fact about this remarkably nonsensical event: no single winner of the poll has even won the Republican Party's presidential nomination, let alone the presidency ("Bush wins as Quayle looks finished", 16 August).

Thus one might argue that his victory is the worst bit of political news George W Bush has yet received. If, as is likely, he in fact does win both, it will be because he flooded the straw poll with even more outsiders than usual and made it even more of a non-event.

The only beneficial role of the straw poll might be to give an unknown candidate a bit of name-recognition. Otherwise it is pure farce.

Tivoli, New York