An article widely circulating on the Internet by Wick Allison, one-time editor-in -chief of the conservative National Review, endorses Barack Obama. Mr. Allison is clearly a conservative, and after he resigned from the magazine in 1993 began publishing his own conservative magazine in Dallas.

Mr. Wick’s article is very much worth reading. He says that he endorsed John McCain in the primaries, and that while there are aspects of Barack Obama’s platform with which he disagrees, the more he listens to the candidate and studies his writings, the more he comes to the conclusion that Obama is a conservative in the true sense of the word. “Nobody,” he says, “can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man.”

He classifies Obama as a realist and doubts that he will continue the present administration’s policy — endorsed by John McCain — of taunting Russia at the very time when we need her most as an ally. He concludes: “The crucial distinction in my mind is that, unlike John McCain, I am convinced he will not impulsively take us into another war unless American national interests are directly threatened.”

Carlos D. Luria, Salem