Just Another Liberal Blowhard

I can only hope that the debate on Thursday evening can put to rest a couple of myths perpetuated by the Republican Party. First, George Bush is not a good debater. Second, he is not just a ‘normal guy.’ Bush’s handlers have taken his greatest weakness—his almost complete lack of intellect—and have tried to spin this into a plus. “He is stupid, just like you,” they say. I don’t know about you but I’m not stupid and I’m not voting for him.

During the debate Bush looked like what he really is: A spoiled rich kid who is used to getting his way and doesn’t appreciate being challenged. It is no secret that President Bush has lacked any sort of desire to challenge himself intellectually in his life. Sure, he got his ticket punched at a couple of America’s most expensive universities but if he has ever read a book in his life for pleasure that isn’t apparent in the image he has created of himself as the down home working guy who has a fake ranch. The Bush people have worked to make Americans suspicious of a man like Kerry who has worked to better himself intellectually over the course of his life. They say it is a bad thing that he speaks fluent French. God forbid we have a president who speaks another language. What way is that for a world leader to act?

Bush has based his entire campaign not on his record, which has been disastrous, but on this whole “flip-flop” issue with his opponent and his own willingness to be resolute and steadfast in whatever it is he is doing. Bush has claimed that Kerry is forever changing his mind on what to do in Iraq but he has yet to spell out what his own plan is--and he is the acting president. Just exactly what Bush’s resolve is all about is not very clear. Is he resolute about continuing to allow a complete breakdown in civil order in Iraq? There may or may not be elections in Iraq in January but there will certainly not be democracy any time soon.

If Iraq is only about a matter of wills, about being resolute, then I can tell you that we have already lost. How much more resolute can you be than strapping yourself with explosives and blowing up a bunch of women and children? That is the kind of resolve that we are dealing with in Iraq. Bush has stayed the course, as he likes to say, for a year and a half and Iraq looks worse off than ever these past few weeks. We are losing, folks.

If your tactics aren’t working you need to change them to fit the immediate circumstances in battle. You could call that flip-flopping or you could call that effective leadership. Not that I know anything about battle—I was in the Air Force. We had maids, for God’s sake.

The biggest mistake that liberals make—and I’ve said this for years—is that they shouldn’t let the conservatives define the argument. If after the debate Bush wants to say that Kerry would ask France’s permission to wage a mistaken war then let him. No one points out that Bush has to ask Cheney or Karl Rove permission whenever he wants to go on vacation. Kerry needs to keep hammering away on his agenda. Osama bin Laden attacked us, not Hussein. Bush gave Osama a get out of jail card at Tora Bora. Iraq was the wrong war. Bush did not follow the advice of his top intelligence and military advisors on Afghanistan and Iraq and we are now paying the price. I defy anyone to show me a credible news source that says things are going well in either country.

Kerry won the debate. Bush looked foolish. Let the desperate Bush team try to spin things. Kerry looked like the man who should be our president.

*We asked a random female who she planned to vote for in November. She said that Bush was her man because if John Kerry were elected dogs and cats would be living together. Even taken as a joke her reasoning was utterly pathetic, and she wasn’t joking. I asked her later if she wanted to go back to my house and watch some dog on cat porn. As a Democrat I have access to that kind of stuff.