I’m confused as to what Eric Fehrnstrom is trying say in “Clinton’s risky embrace of Obama’’ (Opinion, July 29). He writes, “Candidates attempting to succeed a two-term president of the same party usually don’t fare well.’’ He further suggests that this is the reason Al Gore distanced himself from Bill Clinton in 2000 and why John McCain did the same with George W. Bush in 2008.

Um, Gore and McCain both LOST after doing that. It was later believed that Gore, in particular, did himself a grave disservice by not connecting himself to the many successes of the Clinton years.

Hillary Clinton would do well to heed Gore’s mistake and continue to embrace all that has been good about President Obama. She should not pretend that we are not much better off than we were eight years ago, because we are.

Amy Shanahan

Salem