Presidential Breakdown
So, here's a li'l break-down of where I stand on this election. At this point my vote will be cast to a candidate out of sympathy and symbolism (i.e., third party), but I am in a swing-state, so I suppose I could be bribed to support your associated candidate.
BUSH CON
-marriage amendment is ludicrous
-heavy-handed policies of PATRIOT/Ashcroft/G-Bay take away rights with little known positive effect (i.e., no prosecutions for terrorism)
-damaging bottle-necks of immigration inflow, visa renewal
-a few free-trade lapses in steel, shrimp tariffs
-awful speaker, arrogant, possibly stupid
-weird religiosity, values of which i don't share (i.e., vis-a-vis gay marriage, creationism, etc)
-the segway fall
-pampered blue-blood background
-ill-timed tax cuts?---->ridiculously large deficit
-ports not secure
-dropped his dog
-mono-syllabic world-view fits on a gum-wrapper
-weird intra-administrative strife b/n hawks and doves as North Korea and Iran arm themselves with atoms
-nepotism
-did a shitty job selling a war with iRaq
-skull+bones, frat boy
-strategic, if necessary, support of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other autocracies
-Abu Gravy
-broke immigration-policy promises to Mexico
-the pretzel incident
-iRaq looting
-hated by the world
-administration too secretive, too reluctant to admit errors
-a fuck-up at Yale and early businesses, substance addict
-anti-terror $ distributed in unenlightened way (e.g. not enough to NYC)
BUSH PRO
-overall strong free-trade supporter
-understands the positives of outsourcing, of a flexible worker's market
-for school vouchers
-some progressive immigration policy ideas (i.e. Mexico)
-$ to fight the AIDS (Africa)
-for revamping SS in a direction away from dead-end statism
-positive vision for 'spread of liberty' in autocratic world, opposed to tyrannous status quo
-for Yucca Mnt. 'nucular' waste storage
-we goin' ta Mars!
-Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powel, Rice smart and delightfully entertaining
-good work in Afghanistan
-iRaq: well, the Kurds are doin' great!
-'multilateral' talks with 'crazy-man' Kim
-daughters more sanguine, cuter
KERRY PRO
-seems smart
-would probably have Robert Rubin in his cabinet, sorta a Friedman-ite trade-wise
-'spicy' wife
-his victory could mean a good job for dad with the DOE
-pro science (whatever that means--probably more NSF funding, more money for alternative fuel sources, believes in evolution, etc.)
-Catholic
-vows not to raise my taxes (he looked me in the eye!)
-more for gay rights (but not enough)
-can probably do a good robot dance
-liked more by the world (even though it's cos he's 'Notbush'), thus, could get a systematic across-the-Earth boost of support for America's international agendas
-plays cool sports
-speaks French, is 'worldly'
KERRY CON
-douche
-pampered blue-blood background
-against Yucca Mnt. 'nuclear' waste storage
-BS fear of outsourcing
-BS promoter of 'fair trade,' a euphemism for unenlightened government controls
-naivete wrt SS
-Herman Munster
-weird statist medical care ideas
-abysmal senate record
-naysayer
-skull+bones, BMOC
-hogged the puck playing hockey as a young man
-doesn't seem to 'get it' wrt terrorism. doesn't seem to have a saliently alternative plan to bush wrt iRaq, al Qaeda, etc.
-spews populist tripe like a sprinkler hooked to a septic tank
-'flipflopper': on iRaq war, in his campaign (i.e. John Lennon when against Dean, Rambo II at DNC: "Send ME!")
-his party is doin' the nasty to democracy by sidelining Nader
-annoyingly milked his 'Nam-heroism
-somewhat dubious 'Nam-heroism record
-annoyingly avoided selling his anti-'Nam-war activism
-anti-war activism of youth for early political ambition?
-non-policy on North Korea, Iran
-annoying Mary-Cheney kneeing below the belt
-annoyingly milking death of Christopher Reeve
-running mate is an even bigger douche
NON ISSUES for me:
-flu vaccines
-draft
-stem cells
-judicial nominies, abortion rights (RvR will never be overturned)
THE JURY'S STILL OUT
-will invasion of iRaq be a good thing overall?
-does NCLB work?
WHAT WILL BE SHITTY
-lawyer invasion in the battlegrounds, no matter who wins
-America being hated more if Bush wins. Hated even more if he wins the popular vote too.
WHAT WOULD BE FUNNY
-Bush wins popular vote, loses electoral.
PS. I take requests for any needed elaboration.
posted by ibeching @ 4:52 PM
4 Comments:
Your post is huge and pretty well laid out; I may respond in little parts, but my first thought is: you're right -- this is an Alien Vs. Predator election (no matter who wins etc.).
Looking over your list, my 1st thought is that you're taking both candidates at their word a little too much in regards to free trade. When you say Bushpro:
-overall strong free-trade supporter
-understands the positives of outsourcing, of a flexible worker's market,
I don't see it in Bush's record, particularly when compared to his "lefty" predecessor. I believe we have every reason to believe Kerry is a Clintonite who ran left in the primaries for obvious reasons and will be a trade treaty enthusiast. Bush does lots of giveaways and tariffs that his friends at the Washington Post gripe about all the time; you know what I'm talking about.
We're going to Mars also I think falls in the category of giving the President more credit than a politician deserves, and besides which, if he had his priorities straight his goal would be a Space Elevator 1st, as it would make the trip to Mars a lot safer and cheaper.
I disagree with few other of the Bush pros (although I think his smart and enternaining Cabinet are good from a comedic perspective, they've all made wrong decisions when push came to shove, so I can't really endorse them on Governmental performance grounds. I did think Rumsfeld's much-mocked unknown unknowns comments were perfectly cogent, though, for what its worth).
Similarly, the Kerry side of the trade issues, you even admit is BS:
-BS fear of outsourcing
-BS promoter of 'fair trade,' a euphemism for unenlightened government controls...
Kerry and Bush both have constuincies with jobs at risk from outsourcing, and they'll both put tariffs, etc. in place on their behalf. But both of them care much more about their business community constituents, and will continue the hundreds-of-years long trend toward freedom in this regard.
I disagree with you on some core issues -- I think there's a very good case that GWB is the candidate who doesn't get it wrt terrorism, and I also think Kerry's Health Care ideas are a lot less weird than you do -- I'll put those in a seperate post. I'll also note that Bush's proposals for healthcare are at least as out-of-the mainstream as Hillary's were in 1993 and stand the same chance of passage into law. I'll try to make posts on the main page about those issues.
But I'll say that I think there's not a whole lot of areas where the candidates differ, but I think examining where they do -- gay rights, protechnology/proreligion divide, deficit spending -- generaly (but not always!) mitigate in favor of Kerry. Where they don't differ, though -- stay in Iraq, hunt al Qaeda, spend a lot of government money on pork -- I think Bush's execution has been incredibly poor, and that there should be consequences for him. It seems to me that Kerry will be better by two seperate lines of reasoning. 1. He works to understand the issues and he evaluates problems (his senate experience was largely in addressing illegal foreign policy -- Iran Contra, Salvador, etc.), and George Bush does not. 2. Replacing Bush on the grounds of incompetence is an implicit threat that Kerry had better do better or he'll also be a one-termer. For those reasons I suggest that you vote for John Kerry for president.
Hah! I guess I have two 1st thoughts... Indicative of a drinking problem, I guess
Josko,
Nicely summarized but 'Bush Con' has items missing: http://www.submunition.com/mtype/archives/geopolitics/100_facts_and_1_opinion.html
We looked for a Kerry equivalent, but have not found any.
And From a teacher's perspective NCLB is a disaster. Unrealistic expectations without support, training, finances and clarity.
UPDATE: A person that will remain unnamed has offered to bribe me to the tune of $100US to cast a Kerry vote. S/He is so veheemently anti-Bush that s/he is having nightmares about his victory. Tears shed. While I'd love to dump such a fund into the Josko Gets An iPod Foundation, my conscience cannot allow me to sell my vote, ...for such a small sum.
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