I will try and do this without using poetry or humor. I was sitting in my parking garage a little bit ago and there was a loud Boom. I looked in the direction of the sound and saw a guy getting something off of his van that had apparently fallen and hit the ground and echoed in the garage. If and of itself this is no big deal. But you know what I thought? I thought freaking terrorists were attacking my building. For the quickest second that’s what I thought. I looked for an escape route. Before you label me an alarmist, my fear is not totally crazy as the Israeli consulate is in my office building and the security here is pretty crazy. There was a time in my life where that would not have been my first reaction. There was a time when terrorism was something that took place in other places in the world. That time is long gone. I hated the 2000 election. It was dirty, painful, embarrassing, and drawn out. I hate this one much, much more. When I see you guys posting about the economy, jobless numbers, Stem Cell Research, Kerry’s military record, Bush’s lies, tax cuts, and other meaningless crap I just want to scream. In the new BIG PICTURE, that stuff is meaningless. Which of the two guys do you want delegating authority to run a war against an illusive (difficult to catch) enemy? Forget all the rest. That is the only issue at stake. If and when we get attacked again who do you want up there? I do not think Dubya is an idiot drunk with power. I think he is human. Prone to mistakes. Maybe a little too trusting. I think he is honest. I think he believes the bad guys really want to kill all of us. I do not think he worries about his legacy. I think this election is a nuisance to a man that wants to continue fighting terror. I think that this war started in Afghanistan, moved to Iraq, and it’s not going to end there. I think he is as untrusting of other nations as I am. I think he has my, and your, best interest in heart when he makes decisions regarding the war on terror, just like other world leaders will have the interest of their people when they make decisions. I want my President to be my leader, not to be my conduit to a larger council of people. And when I weigh all of this Bush is the better choice. I’ll give it to you that when you start considering the other insignificant issues that it may not weigh out the same. But I don’t care about the other issues right now. Militant fundamentalist Islam is a terrible virus that is affixed to a good religion. It is destructive and horrible. It must be addressed constantly, thoroughly, and yes, painfully. Diplomacy is not an option, it never will be. I am not trying to convert any of you guys; I have read enough of your posts to recognize an immovable object. I just wanted to outline why I pray, literally, that George Bush has four more years to continue the fight. I trust him. I would challenge my fellow posters to post from an emotional standpoint why you will vote for Bush or Kerry without being hateful or slinging poo. I would like to read the reasons.
There's nothing hateful about that, it's manifestly true and represents Bush's greatest failure. Illusory enemies -- think about it.
I will probably vote for neither. I hope Bush wins because I want him to put some pro-life justices on the supreme court, and I think we will have some retirements in the next term (I thought there would be retirements in this term, but it looks like the liberal judges are holding on in the hopes of Kerry appointing their replacements.) That is a big issue to me, because I believe that legalized abortion is the government sanctioned murder of millions of innocents. There is likely no point in me actaully voting for Bush because he has little chance of actually carrying California, so I might vote for an independent or possibly a libertarian candidate (I know libertarians are not typically pro-life, but since the libertarian won't actually be president, he/she won't be appointing SCJs, and I agree with many other Libertarian party ideas). Maybe in the future I will live in a battleground state, so my vote can be more important.
Chance, Actually, it is for exactly the reason you mention that my support is for John Kerry. He has a much better plan to deal with terrorism in the long term than the strategy that GWB has put forth. Terrorism is, in general, not going to be state sponsored after our action in Afghanistan. The world saw that the US is ready and willing to take out any regimes that are even moderately friendly to terrorists. This means that from now on, terrorism will happen by and large under cover of darkness and in back rooms. Kerry will fund the intelligence services to the point that they will be able to give us actionable intelligence regarding terrorists and, once we have that information, take the f***ers out with covert operations. If I were a terrorist, I would not be concerned about the huge, lumbering army whose movements I can track, I would be worried about the Green Berets, SEALs, and Rangers. Kerry understands this and, with the cooperation of the vast majority of the world rather than the "coalition of the willing," will be FAR more effective in fighting terrorism than GWB has been. I believe that the actions of the US in the past year and a half have CREATED more terrorists and pro-terrorist sentiments than we have destroyed. The only thing we have destroyed over the past year and a half is the goodwill and cooperation that started on 9/11 and continued through the campaign in Afghanistan.
SM, I live in California and I will vote for W. Every vote does mean something. I agree with Chance in that the most important issue to me is the war on terror. I believe that W will be a better leader for our country.
if the 'war on terror' is the most important issue to you guys, why would you vote for a leader that has made that war harder for us, and easier on the enemy? I don't get it. the elective war in Iraq has hurt and hindered our fight against radical Islamic terrorists
I'm sorry but that is the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. I dont care who you vote for, just vote. And vote for who you want to win. What if everyone had your defeatist attitude and didnt vote or voted for someone that they didnt want to win? I guess that just doesnt make much sense to me. There are millions of people that would love to have the opportunity that we have to vote and you squander it. People that do this should not be able to b**** about the state that our country is in.
War on Terror as seen in Iraq: piss off all but one of our tradiitional allies make stuff up and invade Iraq adds to the bulging deficit (which does not matter if the Second Coming occurs within our lifetimes) overextends our military (which backdoor drafts the reserves and the national guard) do not put in place plans for realistic post war scenarios If say two years from now the USA really needs to take care of Iran as part of the War on Terror, we would lack the allies, world good will, money, and military assets to erxpediently accomplish the task. Of course, the USA could proceed by growing the deficit (perhaps making the super rich suffer through another tax cut) and establishing a draft.
"I'm sorry but that is the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. I dont care who you vote for, just vote. And vote for who you want to win. What if everyone had your defeatist attitude and didnt vote or voted for someone that they didnt want to win? I guess that just doesnt make much sense to me. There are millions of people that would love to have the opportunity that we have to vote and you squander it. People that do this should not be able to b**** about the state that our country is in." ~Master Baiter Right on! Excellent post. Chance, I'm glad you're going to vote. You have your reasons, which I disagree with, but, by god, you're going to vote. For that, you have my respect. I don't think I need to get into why I'll be voting against George W. Bush. It's all over the place here, in one thread or another, or in one post or twenty. At least I'm consistent. I've voted against him in every election in which he has run, unless I've forgotten one. He was an incompetent and misleading Governor, and he's doing what he did to Texas on the national level, and at new heights of incompetency, which is much, much worse. Why on earth would I change my mind about him now?? The country is worse off today because he is President. It will be better off when he is not. And that day cannot come soon enough.
Andy- Question for you. Here in Ohio (Columus at least) there is a new set of ads running from W that takes dead aim at this. It says immediately after 9/11 Kerry voted to cut intelligence operations/services by $7b. Why did he vote to do that? Has his stance changed since then? I just found it odd that you are saying he wants to do something that ads in Ohio says he voted to cut after 9/11.
I know what he meant -- but what he said was more important, even if unintentional. Think about that. And think about THIS which is one of many reasons not to vote for George W. Bush.
I think I'd like to hear Chance tell us why he doesn't think Kerry will protect America better than or as well as Bush.
Maybe you should question whether or not those charges are accurate. I remember seeing something about these charges back in March and how they were extremely misleading.
i had lunch with a friend who voted bush in 2000...but who says he likely won't be voting bush again. i'm seeing a lot more of that than i expected.
excellent post chance, and it mirrors my feelings almost exactly. certainly W is not perfect, there are many of his policies that i could quarrel with, however, he has grasped from the moment (ok, seven minutes later) the planes hit those towers how the world, and america's place in it, has changed. every other issue is utterly irrelevant at this point. i might have considered another candidate had they demonstrated an iota of seriousness on this point. in fact, i wanted kerry to speak to this issue in his acceptance speech. it was his one opportunity to have a shining moment, to speak directly to people like me who don't live in a swing state and so will never see him speak live. there were no intermediaries, not spin doctors, just kerry speaking directly to the camera. and what did he say? well, evidently the war is very important to him. to bad the war he spoke of is 35 years old. in the end, i have to look at my two young children, my wife, and ask myself which candidate really takes our safety seriously? which candidate will stop at nothing, not the entrenched beauracracies on capital hill, state, the pentagon, and cia, not erstwhile "allies", and certainly not the ineffectual UN, to get the job done. the answer may have two syllables, but only one letter.
