Sir, – While I suspect I am generally ad idem with Maureen Dowd, it is impossible to describe the US president as the "most beatable candidate in American history" ("Has game-changing Trump doomed Democrats to irrelevance?", World, Opinion, September 16th).
The recent candidacy of Hillary Clinton clearly exceeds Mr Trump’s position on any such scale. Indeed, it would appear that only the modern US Democratic Party could have found someone whom he could beat. One with 20 years of political baggage and failure, who had won the deep antipathy of about 20 per cent of the electorate, and who seemed so utterly out of touch with everyday life that a billionaire reality TV star seemed more authentic to blue-collar Americans. Someone they had already shown the world how to beat, when Barrack Obama did so in the Democratic primaries. Only the modern Democratic Party could have got Mr Trump elected, and we should not be surprised if it manages to do so again. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.