I do have strong feelings regarding the upcoming election, and will be voting for Bush. I'm not a really big fan at all of his domestic policy thus far either, but I blame that on a misjudgement of his political opponents, thinking that if he compromised with them to a degree, that they'd be more civil. For example, the education bill passed under this administration. Bush pretty much allowed Ted Kennedy to write the bill, and as a result, the US spends more on education now than it ever has in the past--a sum which exceeds the budget for national defense-- and still you hear the Democrats carrying on that we don't do enough for education...
As far as foreign policy is concerned, I think that the notion that Gore, or another democrat would have handled life post 9/11 in the same fashion is horribly misguided. That somebody doesn't explicitly spell out what they would have done differently does in no way imply that they would have done things the same. Kerry goes about saying that he'd do foreign policy better, that he'd do education better, that he'd do the laundry better, but he never explains himself, except to say that he'd "do it better" or "get more international support." Saying that you'd do something better without saying how is utterly hollow and meaningless. As an engineering student, if I give answers without showing how I obtained them, I fail my classes. Why should a prospective leader of our nation be held to a lesser standard? Bush is willing to state his underlying principles, and stick by them, even when polls and focus groups say that people don't like his ideas. The same can't be said for John Kerry.
As far as Iraq is concerned, there is no question in my mind that Bush is the better candidate. Kerry says that he would have gathered more international support... From whom? Does anybody remember a year or so ago, when Saddam's forces fired a bunch of rockets at a hotel in Baghdad? If I remember correctly, those rockets were French made, AFTER the arms embargo imposed on Iraq. Have you done any reading on where the money from the "oil for food" program went? It sure as hell wasn't making it's way to the Iraqi people. Oh, and that program was personally administered by Kofi Annan, the big cheese in the UN. By the way, who is represented in the UN? Everybody who wants a say in it. That means Libya, North Korea, Cuba, and every other regime that cares to build itself upon the sufferings of its own citizens, alongside those nations who retain a degree of civility and concience. Beyond all that, people are coming to the conclusion that because there haven't been large stockpiles of missiles clearly labeled "weapons of mass destruction" that such things aren't and never were there. This is like saying that your wallet doesn't exist because you can't find it in the morning. It's a question of where the WMD's are, not if they are. Saddam gassed his own citizens in the 80's, so he had WMD's then. Does anybody believe for a moment that he grew a concience overnight, and decided to stop trying to find a way to annihilate Israel, which was a stated desire of his? One last thing-- what do WMD's look like? You don't clearly label things that you aren't supposed to have. I've seen reports of large stockpiles of pesticides habitually being discovered near ammunition dumps. It so happens that industrial pesticides are precursors to modern nerve agents. If there's truth to these claims, it's like having graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey's bars next to a campfire while whittling a stick, and saying that you aren't planning on making smores...
On financial policy, Bush inherited an economy that was on a long-overdue bust after a hollow dot-com boom. For the last several months, there's been very respectable growth. People are actually doing quite well, and have a bit of their own money back as a result of the tax cuts Bush implemented. Kerry wants to repeal those tax cuts, and raise some more taxes, and bring about a socialized health care system that would make Medicare look like pocket change. Make no mistake about it, you're gonna take home a hell of a lot less of the money you traded your life for if you elect Kerry.
So anyhow, I've ranted long enough. I'm voting for the guy who sticks to his principles even when it's not popular, instead of the guy who checks the polls every morning to see what tie to wear...
