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Friday, May 28, 2004
I Love/Hate Kerry
This I hate:
This is my message to terrorists: As commander in chief, I will bring the full force of our nation's power to bear on finding and crushing your networks. We'll use every resource of our power to destroy you.
This I love:
If we are serious about energy independence, then we can finally be serious about confronting the failure of Saudi Arabia to do all that it can to stop financing and providing ideological support of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Is it wrong to start looking forward to 2008?
ntodd
May 28, 2004 | Permalink
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Comments
I'm not wild about the butch talk either, but he's gotta throw red meat to the hawks or he runs the risk of getting McGoverned. As David Brooks noted on Lehrer tonight, the Democrats were right about Viet Nam in 1972 (of course we were!) but the flower-power label stuck and has been our burden for thirty years. (I hate it when he's right about something, the little twerp.)
If Kerry didn't talk tough about terrorism today it would be like a Democrat in '60 or '68 not talking tough about Communism. And it's a throwaway line - it would be news if he didn't say it.
Any thoughts of 2008 should be directed to getting JFK 2.0 re-elected and, to paraphrase Leo McGarry, Let Kerry Be Kerry. And when you think of who he'll be running against - Bill Frist, maybe, or even better, Tom DeLay - we can have the campaign we really want to have.
Posted by: Mustang Bobby | May 28, 2004 7:21:45 PM
Any thoughts of 2008 should be directed to getting JFK 2.0 re-elected
Not sure I can accept that right now. Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but I'm also trying to prepare myself to be disappointed by President Kerry. I want a real choice in '08, not the Dems' status quo candidate vs. the GOP's pure evil selection.
Posted by: NTodd | May 28, 2004 9:19:31 PM
Oh, what-the-hell. I was going to try to write something inspiring, but it just isn't in me at the moment. You can blame my long work week, and my very much not wanting to work for a living. I am not always such a curmudgeon...
For all our legitimate quibbles with Kerry, we shall be lucky to have him as a candidate in 2008.
If God hates us, GW Bush will rule four more years, and in 2008, we'll get Joe Lieberman vs. Jeb Bush (Tom DeLay will have been indicted by 2008)... and Nader will live to run again. Hey, it could happen. Or maybe there will be no election in 2008. That, too, could happen. Or maybe there will be no election in 2004, and all our quibbles now will turn out to be so much pissing into the wind.
Many who assert loudly how weary they are of supporting the lesser of two evils take actions that force all of us to do just that... or, worse, as in 2000, to grit our teeth and live under the greater of those evils.
Face it: for the rest of my natural life... 20 more years, if I equal my father's span... the U.S. will have as its president a Democrat, a Republican, or a dictator. (The last two may, of course, rule simultaneously.) I may dream, but I can't see any possibility that something else will really happen.
Jefferson assumed we'd have had a revolution long since, and is probably turning in his grave that we maintain this creaky, frequently unjust and antidemocratic, antirepublican framework, this hollow shell of what he bequeathed us. But we do, indeed, maintain it, and I'm not sure I see a path to something better. I most certainly do oppose the status quo, but I proudly support the lesser of two evils.
Here endeth my rant for the day.
Posted by: Steve Bates | May 28, 2004 10:47:07 PM
What ever happened to saying what you believe rather than saying what it takes to get elected? It pains me to see independents supporting such a weak candidate. Kerry is terrible, we need IRV, pass the Sarin.
Posted by: Tucker | May 28, 2004 11:31:04 PM
I think Steve said it best!
I'm still convinced that the more it looks like Bush may lose, the greater the chance of a "terrorist attack" (it is debateable who the actualy 'terrorist' will be, Al Kracker is as good a bet as any), that will give the Repugs the excuse they need to postpone the elections, indefinitely. Possibly even instate martial law. You may call me paranoid, but that doesn't mean my words don't have some weight to them.
Posted by: wanda | May 29, 2004 1:07:45 AM
Steve - fine rant! I of course will be voting for Kerry, and do think there's more than a dime's worth of difference between your party and the GOP.
But just saying they're better than Bush isn't much to hang my hat on. Sounds like the "we're better than Saddam" argument heard from winger quarters these days. Anyway, when I see politically expedient statements like "we'll destroy terrorists" come from Kerry's mouth, I feel compelled to note that I disagree. Consider it dissent in a time of war--very important if we are to stay true to America's ideals.
My hope for 2004: Kerry wins big, has coattails enough to win back the House and the Senate. We need time to swing the pendulum completely back and start repairing the damage inflicted by Republicans.
My hope for 2006: the GOP wins back the House. I believe strongly in split government, and I hate the idea of the Democrats in charge of everything.
My hope for 2008: a Democrat who is not the safe, status quo choice is in the White House; the GOP splits into two parties, one dominated by the Christian Right, the other chock full of moderate Republicans; the Greens become a legitimate force on the national level after spending 4 years proving they can govern locally.
Hey, it's my blog, and I can dream.
Tucker - I'm totally a believer in IRV. I think I'm going to need to be more active in pushing for it over the next 4 years.
wanda - I honestly think at this point a terrorist attack can't help BushCo, and won't be a good pretext for postponing elections. If it weren't so long after 9/11, and BushCo hadn't clearly screwed the pooch everywhere, maybe the thugs could get away with it. But now, I think M-11 showed that a dishonest, arrogant government will lose. The GOP and their apologists missed the real lesson of Madrid.
Posted by: NTodd | May 29, 2004 7:10:58 AM
What Bobby said.
Posted by: Mark H | May 29, 2004 10:18:36 AM
"I will bring the full force of our nation's power to bear on finding and crushing your networks. We'll use every resource of our power to destroy you."
Doesn't bother me a bit - not when you consider that terrorists are criminals, and the full force of our nation's power isn't just military force. Careful police work, good intelligence gathering, successful prosecution ,
and the wheels of justice are the best weapons against terrorists. Sometimes - sometimes - they must be backed up by military force.
Equally important is a foreign policy that doesn't churn out more terrorists.
Unlike the squatter currently in the White House, I think Kerry is smart enough to know that, and won't throw our military at every suicide bomber that will (inevitably) plague our lives.
Posted by: andante | May 29, 2004 1:21:34 PM
IRV... are there any among us who wouldn't prefer it? any people who actually believe in representative government, that is (and I emphatically do, my partisan affiliation notwithstanding, and I am convinced you, NTodd, and most of your readers, do as well)? I can't see our way from here to there. It won't happen. In an era when most people cannot even be drawn out to vote, how do you expect to motivate enough people to change the electoral process itself?
I can't even see our way past the Electoral College, for that matter... small states (including those whose name begins with a V and then an E) gain too much advantage by the EC's continued existence. The most we might accomplish is a change in each of the fifty states (well, I believe there are a few that already do this) allowing the electors to be chosen based on the popular vote, rather than a winner-take-all system. One suggestion palatable to me is that each congressional district gets one elector, and the two remaining electors (the "senator" electors, if you will) are assigned according to the state's total popular vote. Such a bill occasionally gets introduced into the Texas House, but always dies in committee. If it ever passes, I'll already have been worm food for a century at the time.
"... the Greens become a legitimate force on the national level after spending 4 years proving they can govern locally." - NTodd
Now that is a highly positive fantasy, NTodd. Don't tell my fellow D's I said so; they might misunderstand my motives: on my good days, I believe the Green Party's existence as a credible political entity could help me push the Dems... and hence the nation... to the left. Absent IRV, and absent Green political competency, however, all the Greens will accomplish is the repeated reelection of conservative Republicans. Who among us could love that idea!
(Stella just called, and made me an offer I can't refuse. Talk amongst yourselves!)
Posted by: Steve Bates | May 29, 2004 11:10:18 PM
andante - yes, terrorists are criminals, but Kerry was clearly speaking of the military option. He spoke of being Commander-in-Chief and bringing our power to bear. That's militaristic talk, and clearly pandering.
Steve - I have always had a rich fantasy life.
Posted by: NTodd | May 30, 2004 8:56:10 AM
Buy me stuff off my 
