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 Post subject: Commanders-In-Chief in Election Years
PostPosted: Mon 08-09-2004 3:58PM 
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This is a good article that takes a historical perspective on perceptions of presidents in election years. I think, for the most part, the author's points are fair and well-argued. Perhaps people can look at this election with a different paradigm when they learn about similar situations in history.

On the subject of Commanders-In-Chief, I would like to know if John Kerry would have gone into Iraq knowing what we know now. He really has a bad habit of not answering direct questions with direct answers. While that may keep you out of hot water in politics, it puts you in hot water when you are giving orders to military commanders. Similarly, if you do not clearly define your intentions in the intelligence community, you may end up with abuse of power situations like those that happened in Abu Gharib.


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PostPosted: Mon 08-09-2004 7:22PM 
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I'm not in the habit of replying to myself, but I saw this article just now.

Basically, Kerry said he still would have voted for the Iraq resolution (although he voted not to fund it). I've posted before that there is no substantive difference between what Kerry says he's going to do and what Bush is actually doing. This new position just proves my point further. We are left to assume that Kerry will continue on with the same foreign policy, creating world peace simply with his superior personality (and French linguistic skills). We would all be justified in extreme skepticism in this position. Maybe he doesn't even plan to do what he says (my theory) and will instead turn sharply to the dovish side of things when he takes office. In that case, he mislead the American public.

The only notable difference in Kerry's plan for Iraq is that Kerry wants to significantly reduce American presence in Iraq by this time next year. This is not really that big of a difference, though, because Bush wants to do the same thing by getting some NATO troops in there, but we all know that France (and similar countries) likes thumbing its nose at the U.S. more than it likes promoting stability in the Middle East.

For more on Europe and its view of the U.S., I recommend this op-ed from the Wall Street Journal. I find it funny that much of Europe denounces Bush and praises Kerry while bitterly criticizing the U.S. for interfering with the autonomy of other countries. The more I hear other points of view, the more I'm convinced that the "Stop Evil, No Questions Asked" philosophy is the most consistent one.

For more on Europe, I recommend this column about Europe and Lance Armstrong. One of the fundamental differences between the average European and the average American is that the American sees justice if everyone is given a fair shot. Europe only sees equality when everyone has the same in the end. To tie this back into Kerry and foreign policy, there are fundamental differences in the values of Europe and the U.S. that make a "peace through personality" approach rather naive.


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PostPosted: Tue 08-10-2004 8:08AM 
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At the risk of holding a conversation with myself, I'm posting another column I just found. This article, coincidentally, is about the probable discrepancy between the conservative positions Kerry espouses and the liberal agenda he will likely enact once in office. I say this is a coincidence because I just started a similar train of thought in my last post.

Feel free to chime in if you think I'm on to something here (or full of crap). A question: Is this drifting toward the center of the political spectrum during campaigns followed by a polarization once in office appropriate for elected officials to do? Did Bush do the same things in his campaigns? Is this tendency more concentrated in presidents who view themselves as populists as opposed to idealists?


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PostPosted: Tue 08-10-2004 3:39PM 
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Jobenly wrote:
At the risk of holding a conversation with myself, I'm posting another column I just found.

Please, don't let us interrupt! :wink:

All interesting points. Not much to add really. If Kerry wins, he won't have to worry about fulfilling promises, as he can just blame the ones he doesn't come through with on a Republican-controlled Legislature.


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PostPosted: Thu 08-12-2004 3:12PM 
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A bit off topic, but funny enough to post. This is a link to a little flash clip of a rendition of This Land is Your Land by G.W. and Kerry. Oddly enough, it sums up the campaigns up to this point pretty well. Bush and Kerry are animated a la Saddam in South Park.

Click to play.


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PostPosted: Thu 08-12-2004 4:30PM 
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This isn't totally off topic, but I felt the need to say it. Basically I'd like to vote for someone other than Bush. I'm not really all that thrilled with much of what he's done, but when I look to the alternative, I don't really see any other choice. Sure Kerry loves to promote his "positive" agenda while spewing these vague generalities like, "I believe in a better america, blah blah blah," all the while keeping his plan to do all these things a hidden secret. If it's a choice between known medocrity or Kerry's plan to give everyone everything they want, I'll stick with Bush abeit grudginly so.


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PostPosted: Fri 08-13-2004 12:21AM 


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Jobenly wrote:
Did Bush do the same things in his campaigns? Is this tendency more concentrated in presidents who view themselves as populists as opposed to idealists?


I think so. A politician will say many abstract altruistic goals to the masses and deliver pointed messages to his base to ensure his election. Once elected, he will keep his base happy. If Bush didn't act like this, how would John Ashcroft have ever become Attorney General? No need to be centrist after being elected, unless your pushing some legislation through or gearing up for the next campaign.

All politicians do the same things, at least in a symmetrical sense, but none of them realize it when they're blaming the other guy for doing all the same bad stuff that they do.


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PostPosted: Fri 08-13-2004 1:06AM 
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-|F.I.B.|-LowMan wrote:
This isn't totally off topic, but I felt the need to say it. Basically I'd like to vote for someone other than Bush. I'm not really all that thrilled with much of what he's done, but when I look to the alternative, I don't really see any other choice.


You DO have a choice. And no, it's not Nader.

Enter Michael Peroutka, the 2004 U.S Presidential candidate for the Constitution Party.

Think of them as the Green Party's polar opposite. I think they're very similar to the ideas of the 1780's states' rights advocates.

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It's still UMR to me, dammit.


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