The Debate
I didn't watch the debate last week or last night and I don't intend to watch them next week. Well, I can't. I have a class that night. Hopefully, it will be the beginning of a new career; we'll see about that. But, I digress.
Part of the problem is that I have a short attention span for political rhetoric. Neither are saying anything they haven't said before, and won't say again. Well, maybe Kerry will. He will probably come before a crowd who wants to hear him say something...and he'll oblige by saying whatever he thinks they want to hear.
Both parties are guilty of exaggeration and hyperbole. Both parties downplay what they don't want the voter to think about. Both parties keep pounding on points that we are well aware of. I hate hearing "my opponent will...." and it's something negative. I'm a positive person. I don't want to hear negatives. I also don't want to hear what Kerry has to say about anything.
Who won the debate? As I said, I didn't see it. Who cares who won? The people who watched for the most part already know who they will vote for. People who watch debates are interested in this sort of thing.
I am much more interested in what the candidate has done for the last few years. In Bush's case, what he's done in the last four years; in Kerry's, what he's done for the last 20 years.
Bush came into the White House with a recession inherited from the previous administration and nine months later was handed the worse attack on American soil ever. It crippled the aviation industry and all industries attached to it. I heard something in the vicinity of one million jobs were lost. The economy suffered greatly. Wall Street was closed for a week or so. We, as a nation, were in bad shape.
Tax cuts were instituted to put money into the economy. I don't know about you, but when I have extra money, I don't bury it in a mason jar in the backyard. I don't put it under the mattress. It either goes into the bank or I spend it. The bank doesn't put a sticky note on it that says it can't be used until I come and redeem it. It goes out to other people. If I spend that money instead of putting it in the bank, it goes into the economy. This is a good thing! In either case, it goes into the economy.
Mr Bush spent a lot of time in the weeks after 9/11 in New York. The people of NY needed to see him. When we are hurting, we look to someone to make the hurt go away. Children look to their parents. Spouses look to each other. Citizens of a country look to their leaders. The president took us into Afghanistan, and today, three years later this nation is free of the Taliban. Today, three years later they are voting on who will be their leader. Men, women, children are free to live their lives, to prosper as they want. We went into Iraq 18 months ago. Today, the Iraqi people are free. More people have electricity and running water than under Saddam. After coalition forces took Baghdad, people opened businesses. They want to run their own lives. They will be having elections in just a few months. They went from a dictatorship to freedom to voting in less than 24 months.
No one ever really wants to go to war. I know that I abhor war. But sometimes you have to do what's right, whether you want to or not. Whether it's popular or not.
Mr. Kerry served in Vietnam. He told people that one day he wanted to be the POTUS. He won medals and ribbons while in Vietnam. All well and good. I will not denegrate his service. He left the Navy and spend some time protesting against the war. I will not denegrate these actions. He had the right to express his opinion. He then spent time as a prosecuting attorney and then as Lt. Governor of Massachusettes. He spent the last 20 years as the junior senator from Massachusettes. Here is where he should have made his mark. He should have introduced legislation that would make his name. What legislation did he introduce? Co-sponsor? I know that he voted at least 98 times (some say it's more like 350 times) to increase taxes and to cut spending on the military. I know that he missed a lot of Senate votes in just the last few years. He didn't attend something like 75% of the Intelligence committe meetings. It's been said that he attended the closed door meetings. It can't be proven because attendance at closed door meetings isn't tracked. I work in an environment that says if it isn't documented, it didn't happen. So, as far as I'm concerned, he didn't attend these meetings because there is no proof he was there. I didn't even know who Kerry was until the primaries started because he had no name recognition for me. If there's no name recognition, you must not have done anything to be recognized.
Kerry wants to bring our "allies" together to solve problems. That's problem solving by committee. What committee could he be thinking of? My guess is the UN. And when have they ever solved anything except how to line their own pockets? Remember the Oil for Food program? We'll be hearing more about this, unless Kerry wins. Then it will be buried and we'll never hear of it again.
Bush isn't perfect, not by a long shot. But he's proven to me that he's the better candidate. He sees a problem, finds a answer, and deals with the problem. As far as I can see, Kerry sees the problem, talks about it, talks about it some more, and lets someone else deal with it.
