Saruman for or against Sauron?

[Formendacil]

As odd as it may be for me to weigh in on the same side of a canonicity debate as Davem... that's what I appear to be doing.

But to give the Letter fuller weight than I am inclined to do, I have to ask, when Gandalf is said to be the only one who might be fully expected to master the Ring in Sauron's despite, of what group is Tolkien selecting here? After all, I'm fairly sure that just about any Valar could pick up the Ring, use it with no adverse effects, and quash Sauron into the ground.

No, Tolkien is clearly saying of a certain group, only Gandalf could be expected to use the Ring successfully. Well, what is this "certain group". My own reading of it is that this group doesn't included Saruman at all, that when Tolkien was saying this, he had in mind the bigwigs of the West, the group highlighted in Davem's quotes of the previous post: Elrond, Galadriel, Aragorn, possibly Denethor- and Gandalf. Of the "ringleaders" of the West, looking at this list, it makes perfect sense to say that Gandalf was the only one that could be expected to best Sauron. He was the only one who was Sauron's peer WITHOUT the Ring.

And, looked at in this light, this doesn't so much weaken the Saruman claim, as make it stronger, since Saruman was also Sauron's native peer.