August 17, 1999

August 17, 1999 was a day of "told ya so" and "I can't believe it." This was the day that Bill Clinton finally admitted to the nation that he had in fact had an inappropriate relationship with Monica Lewinsky. People closest to him like his Cabinet and even Hillary were astounded and crushed to find this out. Democrats, who had any integrity, had to swallow their pride and say that Clinton was a liar and committed perjury. His defense rested on the definition of "is" and it was embarrassing.

Well after weeks of disclosures by people like Richard Clark, Paul O'Neal, and Bob Woodward it has become painfully obvious to me that under Bush's watch this whole Iraq thing is getting worse by the minute and he has really screwed up. I have watched all of the recent 60 minutes and what I heard from Bob Woodward last night frankly made my jaw drop to the floor. The fact that the ambassador to Saudi Arabia knew about Iraq technically before Colin Powell is frankly unbelievable.

Now for some of you reading this you will be thinking "I am not surprised, Bush is the antichrist!" However I follow in the same paths as those democrat's five years ago who loved everything about Clinton but had to face the music about their flawed President.

There was so much hope in me for Bush. I was hoping that Compassionate Conservatism would finally bring social justice issues to the forefront of the Republican party agenda. I have supported so many of the things that Bush championed like; The partial birth abortion ban, the No Child Left Behind act, establishing the Homeland Security Department, Faith Based Community initiatives, and how he handled himself immediately after 9/11. As I said before he had made a lot of deposits in my respect Bank. Even how he gave the Taliban time to give up Bin Laden before overthrowing them with 300 special forces units and bringing the plight of Afghanistan to the forefront of world conciseness. And how can you fault Bush for his pledge to fight AIDS in Africa.

I understood why the Dems didn't like him. An election that close would do that to anyone, and a lot of people didn't like him because he is from Texas and isn't as "sophisticated" as Clinton. I felt like a majority of the criticism leveled at Bush was being made from these vantage points.

But I have to say that I am so despondent with how this Iraq war has been going that I am finding it increasingly difficult to advocate that Bush should keep his job. I am going to read Bob Woodward's book for greater insight since the administration isn't doing much to criticize it, and they gave him unprecedented access to the White House. On top of that I think Bob Woodward is a straight shooter who is largely void of political agenda's. In addition to Iraq I cannot stand it when the Republican party goes to the NRA convention and whips that bunch of loonies up. I am all for the rights of people to have guns that are appropriate for hunting, but they should at least have a license that's as hard to get as a driver's license is, and they don't need an M16 to hunt with! In addition to all of this there is the meeting with Mubarak followed by Sharon and then the assignation of the Hamas leader. While I don't lament the loss of the Hamas leader who is 10,000,000 times the anti-Semite that Mel Gibson's dad is, it looks very bad in the eyes of the Arab world to shake hands with Sharon and the two days later a Hamas leader is dead.

I am still probably going to vote for Bush since Kerry is dud (read the link and you will see). I wish that Joe Lieberman had won the nomination I might have voted for him. Kerry is just to hard of a pill for me to swallow, but I will try remain open until the debates.

So let me say….Bush has seriously and dangerously underprepared for keeping the peace in Iraq! He placed all his bets on the "slam dunk" of finding WMD in Iraq, but that hasn't happened. Since Iraq is THE big issue of this election Bush should be elected or kicked out based on how peaceful and under control Iraq is. I do not support Kerry, but I can’t defend how Bush has handled Iraq after the war. The way I see it we either need more troops or a greater UN and NATO presence. Unfortunately it's going to take people admitting they made a mistake and no one likes doing that regardless of political orientation. Unless course corrections are made and peace happens in Iraq I don't think he will or should be re-elected.

JI