Between now and the election, I hope to be able to take each of the subjects of concern and grade the Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards campaigns on their record. I will cover one subject in each post and keep an updated report card at the bottom of that post.

First subject is… The War on Terror.

This is listed first because to my thinking, it is the most important.

Bush/Cheney
The current administration has done a great job of executing the initial war on terror. The rapid response in Afghanistan has all but stopped terrorism in the United States. Early coalition building efforts were effective in getting our true allies to assist in this war. The foray into Iraq was a good move, but a public relations nightmare. Bush rushed to war without fostering enough public and international support and has felt the pressure because of this short-sightedness.

Kerry/Edwards
John Kerry’s record on the war is spotted at best. It is now public knowledge that he has voted both for and campaigned against the war. In addition, he voted for funding the war and voted against funding the war. In addition, Kerry has voted against EVERY military expenditure in the last 20 years (although he will be quick to note that he also voted for some of them.) This is a classic tactic perfected by Clinton – if you vote on both sides, you can always just focus on whichever side is the most popular at the moment. Clearly, national security is not important to him. With Kerry in office, the US will be much more vulnerable to these type of savage attack.

Other
Ralph Nader is an independent candidate for President. He has broke from the Green Party over some issues within the party platform. I have strongly associated myself with independent candidates in the past, but this year, there is nothing out there but radicals and flakes. The Greens have put up David Keith Cobb as their whacko-du-jour. While I do personally agree with a large number of the Green ideas, they are being taken over by an even more radical left-wing influence than the Democratic Party. Their plank of total non-violence is just naive and immature. While they are taking hits off their legalized pot, the US will be taking hits by terrorists. Love does NOT conquer all – sometimes you need a big boot to the head.

Current report card. Remember, you should NOT agree with your candidate on EVERY issue. If you do, you are mindless automaton and you deserve the government you get. The only thing you can do is to do as I am doing and decide which issues are important to you and vote according to which side has a preponderance of their record in alignment with your beliefs.