My letter to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Deear Mr. President,

You said repeatedly in the debate last night that "it's hard work." Whether you were talking about Iraq or your own position, I agree with you.

It's all hard work. But all your grousing suggests to me that you probably aren't up to it, and that you don't really want it. Someone who's up to it doesn't spend his first presidential debate complaining.

So I have a proposition for you. The life of an ex-president isn't a life of want, and even if it were, we all know your extended family and their friends can provide for you. They're good for it. What I'm asking is that you concede this election. No longer will you have to bear the weight of the world.

And there's no shame in it, either. Your father served one term. He seems to be doing all right. What with skydiving into his 80s, he's really sort of an inspiration.

We all know being president is hard on you. Why, your hair seems to get lighter every year (except around the time you make a speech, but that's another story). It's a simple proposition, Mr. President. You retire to Crawford or Kennebunkport, and the rest of us don't have to worry about having such an overwhelmed president. Sir, no longer will the demands of statecraft have to interfere with your napping schedule and jogging regimen.

I hope you take this letter to heart and consider it with the same seriousness with which you considered stem cell research in 2001.

Thank you and God Bless,

Poop Ruiz

Good Job, John

I think John Kerry did a very admirable job in the first debate. I think it's an unqualified win. Matt Yglesias is right that it isn't a spectacular win. Considering the way this game is played, it's hard to imagine what would qualify as a a spectacular win. However, I think John Kerry has done the job he needed to do.
The larger foreign policy issue has become the center of this race, and I honestly had some worry about this debate because foreign policy, notwithstanding the fact that his has been disastrous by any objective measure, is Bush's strength. One can't get around the fact that Sepember 11th had a profound effect on a whole range of people. That great tragedy has become a significant point of manipulation by this president. That Kerry was able to win in a debate where so much and so many emotions were stacked against him says something about both men.
Despite Bush's robotic devotion to message, to a handful of carefully crafted slogans, Bush failed to connect, I think. Now, as someone who has long thought Bush was a terrible president, etc., I'm not the best judge of this. But I've seen Bush confident. I've seen him far more polished. When I saw Bush tonight I thought what he was presenting as confidence, ie. his insistence that he will win in November, came off as agitated boastfulness. Kerry may have only brought a few really killer attacks, but Bush seemed defensive and nervous.
The entire lefty blogosphere is saying Kerry was more presidential, and I'm inclined to agree. Kerry was relaxed, forceful but not overbearing, and seemed to be enjoying himself. (as much as Gore actually really won the debates in 2000, this was a better performance than those. Bush was doing the sighing this time) Bush grimaced and rolled eyes, and more than a few times his responses seemed impulsive and emotional. The one style point against Kerry was that he tended to look down and take notes a bit much of the time.
Overall, there were few catastrophic gaffes, although I thought it was quite funny when Bush admonished Kerry for sending "mexed missages"- and the whole idea that Bush seems to value "speaking clearly" so much is a bit rich. (food on your family etc. ad infinitum)
I won't say Kerry just won the election, but this moment was pretty much the make-or-break for his campaign, and he passed with flying colors. I watched the NBC broadcast, and in the wrapup they showed the expected focus group thingy. They interviewed 6 undecideds, all of whom, apparently, remain undecided. However, it was very encouraging. Each seemed to have thought Kerry had won this debate pretty decisively. Most said they remained undecided because they want to see what happens in subsequent debates. I don't think the subsequent debates favor Bush. For all the psyops and expectations management that's been going on, a town hall debate and a debate on domestic policy would appear to favor the Kerry of this debate over the Bush of this debate. The town hall will inevitably be more unpredictable, but I can imagine pretty well how Bush will be in the domestic policy debate. Bush gave us sort of a preview.
Bush will hammer Kerry on the notion he will raise taxes. So has it been lo these many decades. Bush will also perform a variety of his fuzzy math routine of 2000. He'll say there's a tax gap. Mark my words, tax gap is the new fuzzy math. But, given his performance tonight, I expect a similar sort of robotic message-pushing. As much as that can be effective at certain times, it can seem like avoidance of the real problems facing the country.
When something is a problem, and all Bush can say that there's progress and things are getting better, just trust me, he seems like the Baghdad Bob he's been occasionally compared to. If people believe the situation is in need of improvement, and I believe many do, Bush's "stay the course" mantra sounds less like steadfastness and more like inaction.

Bush is Responsible

Events are crescendoing in Iraq, even as Bush/Cheney '04 prop Iyad Allawi tries to convince us that everything is just dandy. It's becoming increasingly clear that there are no real solutions to the insurgency in Iraq, to the lawlessness and the terrorism. But somehow it has not occurred to the American voter (at least, not to the degree it should) that what we have in Iraq, what will be in the decades ahead a scar and a stain as great as Vietnam, is entirely George W. Bush's responsibility.

While there are endless reasons not to vote for Bush this November 2nd, this is the one that is hardest to avoid. George W. Bush authored one of the greatest mistakes in American foreign policy history. Among the allegedly level-headed mainstream press, there remains this vapid and meaningless debate about what Kerry would do to resolve Bush's mess. I can't say it doesn't matter- you'd want a credible and smart person to oversee such a serious policy- but as a debate it's meaningless. Bush's incumbency (and his rampant dishonesty) mean we have to take him at his deeds rather than his words, and his deeds are shameful. Somehow the press persists in regarding Bush's promises of success and democracy and stability just around the corner as something other than the bargaining of an abuser or the delusion and denial of a dry-drunk.

The presidency is a job. The US president is not God's representative on earth, he is a public servant. He is accountable to me, and people like me. When someone performs that job poorly, they deserve to lose that job. LBJ screwed up, and decided not to run for reelection. Nixon screwed up and resigned before he could be fired. I think this president has screwed up just as substantially as those two.

You must know the story by now. Bush compromised our fight in Afghanistan to begin a war against Saddam Hussein. Bush insisted he had WMDs. Bush insisted war was a last resort. In a thousand ways, Bush and his administrated lied and mislead and underplanned and antagonized our allies and made just about any mistake conceivable taking us to war. And what have we gotten?

According to Paul Beat, a security analyst for London-based Control Risks Group, Iraq is the "world's most hostile environment." Mission Accomplished, Mr. President. Over a thousand dead American soldiers. Over ten thousand dead Iraqi civilians. Over seven thousand American soldiers wounded. More than 135,000 American soldiers fighting in the world's most hostile environment. And the uniform consensus of analysts not actively working for Bush's reelection is that the best we can hope for is long term instability and continued brutal violence.

Why did this all happen? There is one word: Bush.

And it personally incenses me, as someone who has always owned up to my mistakes, as someone who's seen manipulative little cowards like Bush create messes get others to take responsibility, that it's even conceivable that Bush might win.