I'm just the guy that can't stand cant. ___________

 
THE KERRY-EDWARDS SHOWDOWN: As the Democratic contest for president effectively becomes a two-person race between Senator John Kerry and Senator John Edwards, many voters are likely to base their decision on which one is the most likely to beat Bush.

For the pragmatic voter in a Democratic primary or caucus, one of the most important attributes in a candidate is the ability to beat Bush. For the idealistic Democratic voter, one of the most important goals to accomplish is ending the misguided policies of Bush – in other words, picking the candidate most likely to beat Bush. Thus, for many Democrats voting for the strongest presidential candidate is both the idealistic and the pragmatic thing to do.

The conventional wisdom has been that Kerry is the strongest candidate. Lately, however, some pundits have argued that Edwards would be the stronger candidate, based on exit polls showing Edwards getting a greater share of the votes of independents and Republicans that have voted in some Democratic primaries.

Although I think the conventional wisdom is often wrong, this is not one of those times. While I think Edwards has some great strengths as a natural campaigner, I don’t think he would be as strong a candidate against Bush as Kerry would be.

The argument that Edwards would be a stronger nominee than Kerry because Edwards has recently outpolled Kerry among independents and Republicans in a few recent primaries suffers from a huge flaw. This argument depends on the assumption that a Democrat that is attractive to independents and Republicans during the Democratic primary season is also going to be attractive in the general election. This assumption is fallacious.

Kerry and Edwards and are now campaigning in the cocoon of the Democratic primaries and caucuses. Once the eventual nominee ventures out into the harsh world of Republican attacks, the dynamics will be vastly different. Bush will do his best to make national security the central issue of the election and to paint the Democratic nominee as weak and uninterested in protecting America from terrorism.

Historically, national security issues have played pivotal roles in nearly all presidential elections since the early days of World War II. In recent presidential elections such national security issues have hurt the Democratic candidate. The perceived weakness of the Democratic candidates on national security issues contributed to losses in 1972, 1980, 1984 and 1988. In 1976, the combination of Watergate, the recent Vietnam debacle and a recession made domestic issues more important. And Gerald Ford (who disastrously claimed in a debate that he did not think that Cold-War Poland was dominated by the Soviet Union) did not come across as particularly strong in any case. The 1992 and 1996 elections were the first post-Cold War elections and national security played far less of a role in those campaigns than in any other presidential election since 1936.

In light of 9/11 and America’s invasion of Iraq, national security issues are likely to resume their historic importance in deciding the 2004 presidential election. This is especially true given Bush’s obvious intent to exploit fear of terrorism. Thus, credibility on national security issues will be essential for the Democratic nominee for president.

Bush is bound to try to make the 2004 election a referendum on national security since he has no record of domestic achievements on which to run. His record on jobs and the economy is the most dismal of any president since Hoover. He has presided over the greatest turnaround in America’s economy since the Great Depression. The only hope that Bush has of a second term is by exploiting a fear of terrorism.

Kerry’s combination of being a war hero, an anti-Vietnam War activist and a Senator for 20 years (not to mention his gravitas) gives Kerry credibility in discussing national security. I actually think Kerry’s activism against the Vietnam War after being a hero in that war can be a plus since it shows both judgment and character. With this background, Kerry stands in stark contrast to Bush, who showed in dealing with Iraq that he foolishly believed that the way to appear strong is to rush into a war without regard for the consequences. John Edwards, with his one Senate term and background as a trial lawyer, just won't have that same credibility.

Bush – the self-styled “war president” – is going to do his best to instill fear in voters and run as the protector of the homeland.

Given his background (not to mention his gut instincts as a fighter), I think Kerry will have greater success in combating this fear mongering.
posted by Gary at 2:23 AM

 
DID BUSH COME CLEAN ON HIS NATIONAL GUARD APPLICATION?: A comparison of Bush’s previous statements about his arrest record and today’s reports about his National Guard application reveal that Bush may have failed to disclose his full arrest record to the Guard.

According to today’s reports, in his 1968 application, Bush revealed to the National Guard that he had been arrested once, for a college prank. Previously, however, Bush has admitted that before he joined the Guard, he had been arrested twice – once for the prank and once for rowdiness.

In an article posted Wednesday night, USA Today pointed out that Bush had acknowledged being arrested twice before being asked about his arrest record on his National Guard application:

Two forms in Bush's publicly released military files – his enlistment application and a background check – contain blacked-out entries in response to questions about arrests or convictions. Bush acknowledged in biographies published in 1999 that he was arrested twice before he enlisted in the Air National Guard: once for stealing a wreath and another time for rowdiness at a Yale-Princeton football game.

In an article posted last night, however, USA Today reports that the White House has now revealed that Bush only revealed one arrest (as well as four traffic citations or tickets) on his National Guard application:

The White House disclosed information in documents Thursday showing that President Bush had been arrested once for a college prank and was cited for two automobile accidents and two speeding tickets before he enlisted in the National Guard.

The accidents and tickets were disclosed for the first time in response to questions about a portion of Bush's military record that had been blacked out when the file was made public during the 2000 presidential campaign.

The traffic violations are significant in the context of Bush's military career. At the time Bush enlisted in the Texas National Guard, the Air Force typically would have had to issue a waiver for an applicant who had multiple arrests or driving violations.

An officer who served at the same time as the president, former Texas Air National Guard pilot Dean Roome, was required by the Air Force to get a waiver for a $25 speeding ticket when he enlisted in the Air National Guard in 1967.

There is no record of an enlistment waiver in Bush's military file.

The USA Today article makes no mention of the discrepancy between Bush’s reporting one arrest on his application and his previous admissions that he had been arrested twice by the time of his application.

Based on these two USA Today articles, it appears that Bush may have failed to reveal his full arrest history to the National Guard.

So, the new Bush-National Guard question for today is did Bush come clean on his National Guard application in reporting on his arrest record?

Let’s see if the White House can answer this question without raising additional questions about the curious National Guard tenure of George W. Bush.
posted by Gary at 1:37 PM

 
THE SHADOW PRESIDENT: I think I have solved the riddle of President Bush’s mysterious tenure in the National Guard 30 years ago.

Bush was not just a dissolute wealthy playboy who blew off his National Guard duty and went AWOL for large chucks of time in 1972 and 1973. The truth is far more disturbing.

I believe the man we have known as George W. Bush for the past three decades is really none other than the Shadow.

Yes, the Shadow ... that mysterious crimefighter of years past whose supernatural power to cloud men’s minds enabled him to become invisible and combat evildoers outside the confines of the law.

Call me mad if you like, but the signs that President Bush has long had the Shadow’s power to cloud men’s minds are unmistakable. In fact, the evidence of Bush’s secret identity is even more substantial than the evidence that Bush actually showed up for his National Guard duty or that pre-war Iraq posed an imminent threat to America.

The inscrutable and shadowy Bush claims to have satisfactorily competed his National Guard duty by attending drills in Alabama and Texas in 1972 and 1973. Yet neither Bush’s superior officers nor his fellow Guardsmen recall seeing Bush at any point after May 1972.

While you would think it would not be difficult to find former comrades of Bush to brag about the good old days of working and training side by side with the future president, there seems to be no one that saw Bush perform any Guard duties during that time period. As today’s New York Times reports:

Inside the Alabama Air National Guard an informal search is on for someone, anyone, who recalls encountering First Lt. George W. Bush in 1972.

At Fort George C. Wallace, the Montgomery headquarters of the Alabama National Guard, officials have responded to growing scrutiny of President Bush's military record by searching through records for proof of his service in the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group. Former comrades from the 187th have been calling and e-mailing one another, always with the same basic question: Did you see him?

So far, it appears that their efforts have come to naught. Indeed, in interviews this week with The New York Times, 16 retired officers, pilots and senior enlisted men who served among hundreds with the 187th in 1972 all said that they simply could not recall seeing Mr. Bush at Dannelly Air Base, the sprawling compound adjacent to Montgomery's airport that is home to the 187th.

Those interviewed either held key supervisory positions at the base or were members of the fraternity of pilots and navigators who often congregated in a lounge on the second floor of Dannelly's main hangar. They worked in different units of the 187th, including the maintenance squadron, the supply squadron, the headquarters staff, flight safety and the flight operations center.

Yet try as they might – nearly all voiced strong support for Mr. Bush – none remembered crossing paths with him. Nor had any heard of anyone else in the 187th who recalled seeing him.
....

[T]he interviews this week deepen a mystery that first surfaced during the 2000 presidential campaign when The Boston Globe reported that there was no record that Mr. Bush showed up for Guard drills between May 1972, when he moved to Alabama from Texas to work on a United States Senate race, and May 1973. Mr. Bush had been ordered in September 1972 to report for "equivalent training" to William R. Turnipseed, the 187th's deputy commander of operations, but The Globe quoted Mr. Turnipseed in 2000 as saying that Mr. Bush never reported to him.

In response to The Globe's article, Mr. Bush's election campaign appealed for members of the Alabama Air National Guard to come forward and vouch for his service, and a group of Vietnam veterans in Alabama offered a $1,000 reward for anyone with proof that Mr. Bush served. No one has come forward.

Even Bush has been unable to name even one person that saw him perform Guard duties in Alabama. In fact, Bush claims to recall practically nothing about what he did as a Guardsman after May 1972:

For his part, Mr. Bush has never offered any detailed descriptions of what jobs he did at the 187th. "I can't remember what I did, but I wasn't flying because they didn't have the same airplanes," he told reporters in 2000.

According to the Bush administration, the only record indicating that Bush actually showed up at the Alabama base is a dental record showing Bush got his teeth cleaned at the base on January 6, 1973.

If we accept Bush’s claim that he continued performing his required National Guard duties after May 1972, the only logical explanation is that he really is the Shadow and was using his power to cloud men’s minds to perform those duties unseen, with a stray dental record the only evidence of his passing through. Perhaps Bush had his power cranked up a bit too high and clouded his own mind, which would explain his inability to remember anything he did on those occasions.

Now think about the uncanny similarities in how the Shadow operated and how Bush governs. Just as the Shadow did, Bush manipulates perceptions and reality to achieve goals outside the strictures of established and accepted rules. For example, Bush led this country to war with Iraq by brushing aside the U.N. and clouding people’s judgments with dire warnings of non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Once we permit the possibility that Bush has the power to cloud men’s minds, the rest of his mysterious career becomes not quite so baffling.

Consider Bush’s disastrous business career in which each business failure led to a more lucrative position. What other explanation could there be other than Bush was using his power to cloud the minds of the wealthy benefactors who kept baling him out. Surely Bush wasn’t merely trading on his privileged background as the son of George H.W. Bush.

Bush’s hypnotic power would also explain why the SEC performed such a perfunctory investigation of Bush’s sale of Harken Energy stock – while he was a director of Harken – shortly before the price plummeted. Bush was again using his power to cloud men’ minds, not merely being given a pass because his father was president.

Bush’s supernatural ability would also help explain how the news media let Bush get away with the most outrageous lies in the 2000 election, such as his repeated claims that most of his tax cut would benefit average Americans when the great majority of it was slated for the super rich. Reporters and pundits could not tell that Bush’s numbers didn’t add up since their minds were being clouded.

Bush displayed his power again on Meet the Press this past Sunday, when he clouded Time Russert’s mind to prevent Russert from asking follow-up questions as Bush told whopper after whopper. For example, Bush falsely claimed that his administration has held the line on discretionary spending better than the Clinton administration, despite the undisputed fact that such spending has gone up at a far greater rate under Bush.

Bush continues to use his power to cloud men’s minds. How else can one explain the ease with which Bush reneged on his pledge to release all of his National Guard records just days after making that promise to a national television audience on Meet the Press? If the press were thinking clearly, there would now be an outrage over this broken promise and obvious attempt to coverup.

The evidence of Bush’s nefarious ability was always there for us to see, if only our minds weren’t clouded.

The only other explanation is that Bush has abused his privileged position to evade responsibility for his entire adult life. But for this explanation to be true, it would also mean that numerous voters and members of the news media were easy marks for a not-too eloquent con-man.

While the theory that Bush has evaded responsibility through a combination of his own duplicity and others’ laziness and gullibility – and not through his supernatural powers – strikes me as somewhat far-fetched, I suppose it at least offers a ray of hope. Bush’s record has been so dismal and dishonest, I question whether even this consummate con-man can fool enough voters for a second term unless he really does have supernatural powers.
posted by Gary at 11:06 AM

 
THE TRUTH BEHIND BUSH'S NATIONAL GUARD SERVICE: The Self Made Pundit is typing these words from an undisclosed location after having been undercover for the past three months investigating the shocking truth behind President Bush's mysterious National Guard service.

Was Bush really a dissolute wealthy playboy who blew off his National Guard duty and went AWOL, or is the truth something far more sinister?

I believe that I am now only hours away from solving not only the riddle of Bush's "missing year" in the National Guard but other Bush mysteries so horrifying I dare not even hint at them. I need only to lay my hands on one last dental record to reveal whole sordid story.

Though it may cost me my life, I must return to blogging.

But I fear I have already said too much and dallied too long at this seedy internet cafe near the docks of this city I dare not name.

If Operative X-7 is still alive and reading this blog, be prepared to take speedy action if I do not post again in the next 48 hours. You know the safety deposit box in which I have hidden the evidence we've uncovered to date. Take whatever steps you deem necessary to reveal the truth and avenge my name. Just remember that when you ask for the safety deposit box you must speak in a lisping Hungarian accent. And of course, don't forget to walk with a limp and to wear the red wig and monocle. And try to be inconspicuous.
posted by Gary at 10:13 AM