I voted yesterday, so now I can sit back and watch the rest of you ponder. I no longer need to. Of course, it really took little weighing of facts to draw my conclusion, so any further mental energy expended in the process would have been wasted. John Kerry is nowhere close to being as qualified as George Bush.
Bush always seemed sincere to me, but really nothing more. He did well as Governor, which is a job with little real authority or responsibility other than building consensus. I voted for him in 2000 for that reason. I felt we needed someone who could pull both sides back together.
He tried. But the other side was completely unwilling to move toward the center. They now blame him for their constant move farther left.
9/11 changed us all, but it really played to Dubya’s strength. He is decisive, not divisive, although that charge is still levied on him. He showed strength and determination. Most politicians actually do see the world as it is, in spite of what they might say. But Bush said the things that needed to be said. And he meant them.
Afghanistan was the killer of empires, and a human calamity waiting to happen. Bush took the politically risky step of going after the Taliban. And never forget how big that political risk was. Within days of our attack, the naysayers were already claiming quagmire. It wasn’t. People like John Kerry will now say they supported those actions. They didn’t. They constantly warned we were going to fail, just like in Vietnam.
Bush proffered many reasons for going after Saddam, the least of which was his potential for furnishing WMD to terrorists. The original Cease-Fire agreement from 1991 gave any UN member authority to take him out if he failed to comply. With nothing more than that, we already had UN support. Bush went to the UN once again to try and build consensus, already knowing France and Russia intended to block him if necessary. When they did, he ignored them. Again, a political risk which he may now pay for.
Most Americans will whine and complain about their choices at the ballot box every election. I don’t know how they can seriously do that this year. If we had two John Kerrys running against one another, I would be complaining, too. Is Bush perfect? No way. And he would tell you that and mean it. Will he whine about how unfairly he’s been treated? Hasn’t yet.
But if you want a President who is not just another politician, this is your chance. For all his faults, George W. Bush is the kind of man I always wanted to have in my organization. He will look at the issues, and make a decision. He won’t check the latest poll or focus group data before doing so. When he says something, he means it, and wants to be as clear as he can be. Not once has he whined about lies being told of him. He has always been positive about the direction he wants to go.
Hell, I would have liked to have him as a commander. It doesn’t surprise me that most in the military like him as their Commander-in-Chief.
I see no option, and that’s exactly how I voted.