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The Ouray Plaindealer, Colorado, Oct. 15:
Any election that involves an incumbent, from county commissioner to president, is elementally a referendum on the office holder. Has he or she done the job? Does he or she deserve to keep the job? Is there reason for change, or should we stay the course?
In the presidential race, that puts George W. Bush's performance over three-plus years at issue for every voter.
What can our current commander in chief claim in his first term? To be sure, Bush has had some moments. In the days after Sept. 11, he was resolute and calming, and America rallied behind him. We all were with the president and our troops as we
rightly routed the Taliban out of Afghanistan. Elsewhere, Bush rightly espouses the development of hydrogen fuel. He advocates health savings accounts, the most sane health insurance strategy out there.
But otherwise, sadly, Bush has badly flunked his four-year test as our nation's leader. John Kerry should lead the United States of America starting on Jan. 20, 2005.
The list of Bush's missteps is long.
- Deficit: Bush is a fiscal conservative? There's a good reason that local governments must balance their budgets. We should be alarmed at the size of the debt.
- Iraq: When Colin Powell went before the United Nations and intoned that Saddam Hussein was poised to give weapons to Al-Queda, a lot of us bought it, and supported the effort. It was all a bunch of hooey. Now, the word quagmire is the only one that fits.
- War on terror: The buck for the bad intelligence that led to Iraq has to stop in Bush's Oval Office. Bottom line: Today, we are more targeted and less safe in the world, and Bush has squandered world respect and immense goodwill toward America.
- Special interests: Why wouldn't Dick Cheney reveal who served on his energy advisory panel? (Can you say "Enron"?) Why has the administration drug its feet on the prescription drug imports issue?
- Partisanship: Bush presented himself as a "uniter, not a divider." If the current situation is described as unity, the sun tomorrow is going to rise in the West. And this climate comes as Republicans control both houses of Congress and the White House.
- Economy: Yes, the recession began before Bush ever took his oath. But Bush's one-trick pony of tax cuts is failing millions of struggling Americans.
- Environment: Bush is servant to a fossil-fuel order that has a short-sighted view of how we use, or misuse, planet earth.
So where does that leave us? With a candidate by the name of John Kerry. If all you know about Kerry is the caricature that Karl Rove has given him as a liberal flip-flopper, then you're doing yourself a disservice.
Kerry is a war hero, an honorable man with a good conscience, a fiscal conservative who has fought for balanced budgets and a student of international affairs who would be an outstanding representative of America in the world.
Though Kerry leans a shade more toward the "government as the solution" philosophy than most Western Coloradoans would prefer, the bulk of his platform indicates that he would be a president who governs from the center, checked by a likely Republican Congress. That's what the United
States needs today.
On Nov. 2, it's time to change the policy direction and the tone of
public affairs in our country.
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