Eliza v. Candid

"Senator Kerry . . . though he was controlled, and organized, and 'presidential' has always seemed like a phony to me, a manufactured, plastic candidate." --Candid Spirit

"It scared me that Bush's response to a serious issue during the debate was the comment 'I'm a pretty relaxed guy, I don't take it personally.'" --Eliza

To see the complete text of what I'm responding to, click here.

Eliza and Candid Spirit, you both have excellent points. I nominate the two of you for the next debate. Only, I don't like either of your points FOR a particular candidate, just Eliza's points AGAINST Bush and Candid's points AGAINST Kerry.

You're both right. Eliza, Bush's style, while popular with many who feel they could get along with him because he's a "regular guy", does not inspire confidence. As Candid pointed out, he seemed like he really didn't want to be at that debate, and he often seems very uncomfortable when in front of any audience not filled with Republicans. This doesn't inspire confidence as a world leader. Also, he's just downright scary when he takes us into pre-emptive wars on faulty intelligence. Not that other nations didn't follow the same faulty intelligence, but at least Blair admited to the faulty intelligence. Bush just tries to change history and say we went to free the people of Iraq-how noble of us.

Kerry, on the other hand, also followed this faulty intelligence. And not only did he vote to give Bush the authority to pre-emptively strike Iraq, but he said last month that if he had it to do over again, he'd vote the same way--even knowing what we know now. Where does Kerry stand on the issues? What will he really do in Iraq? We do know that he plans to send more troops. Apart from that, we know what he said over and over again in the debate--Bush messed up the war and as president, Kerry would have handled it differently. We just don't have a clue what he would have done differently.

Only one candidate plans to bring the troops home. Only one candidate plans to make the U.S. military a defensive military again rather than an offensive one. Only one candidate wants to return America to the values of Thomas Jefferson--"peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none." You two watched a sham of a debate. Despite the heavy handed rhetoric, the two candidates have equally bad plans for America. Watch the real debate which included Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik. Vote for liberty, vote for peace.