Silent Brouhaha

Debate Winner: Kerry

The turnout of the debate is not surprising.  Kerry was calm and poised and appeared respectful and presidential.  Bush smirked, rolled his eyes, and did any manner of things that showed he does not have the respect to listen to Kerry.  If our president cant listen to those who do not agree with him imagine how he treats foreign leaders who disagree with him.  Bush also sounded like a broken record and many times he seemed at a loss for words to explain his positions.  Bush wants to call Kerry the flip flopper, yet every time someone in the Bush administration says anything the next day we end up with something to the effect of "That's not what he meant, this is what he meant to say" so who's the bigger waffler?  Kerry changing his mind is not a bad thing, it shows that he has the ability to reassess the situation and adapt to changing conditions to solve a complex problem.  Bush however will hammer at the problem reguardless if his solution is working or not.  If it does not work all we get are excuses and spin that it did work.

Some people say that's one of their biggest problems with Kerry is that he changes his mind.  Kerry voted for use of force in Iraq, yet he voted against the 87b bill in the Sentate.  He did not vote against our troops, he voted against provisions in the bill he and other party members including republicans that did not meet the needs of the mission or funded or extended the scope of things people disagree with such as the patriot act.  It may have even been something as simple as the bill not containing provision to give the soldiers a pay raise which any soldiers need.  Either way this means nothing about Kerry's support for troops.

Some complain that Kerry supports bilateral talks with North Korea vs including China, Japan, and a few others.  Kerry can have bilateral talks which coincidentally North Korea wants and yet Bush ignores.  You can still include other parties later but if you have a chance to bring the North Koreans to the table to talk you use it.  You don't make demands that X party be there also.  You work with them and get what issues you can worked out, and work the other countries into the talks at the appropriate time.  Otherwise you're not talking to North Korea at all which is the case today.

Either way, Bush has failed in Afganistan on the war on terror, he's created a playground for terrorists that has the chance to become Americas Gaza Strip or worse a flashpoint for a larger conflict in the middle east.  What happens when Bush gets tired of Iranian diplomacy?  Iran's military is larger and more modern than Iraq's military is and they have the same or more capabilities than Iraq did.  Bush failed in driving our longest allies away and who now still refuse to help in Iraq while Bush is running things there vs the help they will give if the UN was taking care of things.  He's failed the middle class and the poor by giving the biggest tax cuts to the top 1% of taxpayers.  And he's failed the world in taking the United States from being a country that went to war as a option for last resort to war as a final resort to war if our president wants it.

Bush: Wrong for Americans.

posted by Corey @ 5:37 AM