I would hardly say that Bush's foreign policy is a disaster. You have been listening to the partisan Dems running for President a little too long. His policies have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein, disarmed Qadaffi of Libya, jumpstarted the disarmament of Iran, captured the #3 leader of Al-Qaeda Khalid Sheik Mohammed with the assistance of Pakistan (a man with is the uncle and mentor of Ramzi Yousef who was the mastermind of the 1993 WTC bombing), toppled the Taliban with the assistance of Pakistan and is working with Russia, China and South Korea to confront North Korea.

Wow that is pretty successful in my book. So he pissed off France and Germany. If you knew how much cash they were losing because Saddam wsa not in power anymore you would understand why they are so pissed. Heck Chirac was the one who sold Saddam the nuclear reactor in the first place.

Again I'm not a Bush backer, but that is a pretty impressive record in less than 3 years. Remember that Clinton approved of regime change in Iraq and lobbed some cruise missles when his approval started to fall (DEC 1998), Bush actually carried it out...

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"If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed." -- David Viscott

The Iraq policy is a disaster. What will the alternative to Hussein be? We don't know and furthermore it will be a hotly contested hellhole forever. Are we to continue to sacrifice soldiers and pour billions of dollars into it indefinitely? The preemptive policy is a sham and benefits none of us but the rich and powerful. Going into Afghanistan was warranted. Starting a perpetual quagmire on false premises was not. Anyway, let's get back to the topic. Can Kerry survive the right wing propaganda machine?

Now for the knocks against Bush's domestic policy...I am a republican though I do admit to not being a huge admirer of our current President. When dem's speak on domestic policy, they are speaking to one issue in particular, THE ECONOMY. Two issues will decide this election, the economy and Iraq (I am not telling you anything you do not already know).

Now, Bush has gotten a terrible wrap a/b the economy as it has struggled since he took over office. The pb, however, is that he walked into an econony that was on the downside of a peak which was preceded by a 10-year econonic boom that is basically unprecendented in the history of this country. There was no stopping the downturn as the excesses of such a prolonged boom needed time to dwindle. You also had the 9/11 events mixed in which did not do the capitalists any favors either.

The fact of the matter is that the economic climate during the Bush presidency was 100% out of his control - he walked into a harsh downturn already in progress. As an investment banker and with a backround in economics, I feel he and the Fed have taken the correct steps to get things going back in the right direction (i.e. tax cuts, and significant reductions in lending rates).


The key come November, however, will no doubt be the unemployment rate. Employment is a lagging indicator of the economy which will not help Mr. Bush's cause. An unemployment rate of 5% and the prez very well could be spending a whole lot more time 'down on the ranch'. All this, regardless of Kerry's voting record that Rob so accurately described.

yours,

TYWEBB

Salons take on the whole thing

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason.../index_np.html

You'll have to click through an add to read it if your not a subscriber, which I'll guess not many here are.

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Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. - H.L. Mencken

Why don't you cut and paste the article here, Skroah?

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Resident of Fishtown, Moderator of Fish/No. Libs/Kenzo forum, Real Estate Agent-Prudential Fox & Roach

I guess I could do that . If their lawyers come after me you better be in my corner.

From Salon.com

There he goes again!
Matt Drudge and the GOP smear machine are back in the Democrats' pants.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Joe Conason

Feb. 13, 2004 | Is American politics suddenly returning to the bad old days, when Washington journalism became frenzied with sheet sniffing and keyhole peeping? That seems to be the default program of the right-wing media machine whenever Republican poll numbers sink into the red zone.

Late Thursday morning -- with George W. Bush's credibility damaged on several fronts as reporters demanded answers to questions about his National Guard service that should have been asked years ago -- the Drudge Report defamed his leading Democratic challenger with a "world exclusive" smudge of personal dirt.

Vague and unsourced but hyped to the maximum by Drudge, the brief item sounded disturbingly familiar. The Internet gossip accused John Kerry of "recent alleged infidelity" with "a woman who recently fled the country," adding that a "close friend of the woman recently approached a reporter with fantastic stories." The same item ran an "off the record" comment attributed to retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who was quoted as saying, "Kerry will implode over an intern issue." Major news organizations from ABC News to the Associated Press, warned Drudge, were all over the story.

By evening, however, no major news organization had run with it, though many were chasing it. Perhaps frustrated, Drudge put up an additional item eight hours later, with a few more details about the alleged relationship. "Unlike the Monica Lewinsky drama, which first played out publicly in this space, with audio tapes, cigar and a dress, the Kerry situation has posed a challenge to reporters investigating the claims," his later item explained. Drudge also quoted a "top source" as saying: "There is no lawsuit testimony this time [like Clinton with Paula Jones]. It is hard to prove."

But the kind of proof usually required by national news organizations isn't what Drudge needs in order to put innuendo into circulation.

Somewhat conveniently, Drudge had earlier posted an item that blamed the sudden smudging on a disgruntled Democratic consultant named Chris Lehane, who had been fired by Kerry before going to work as a communications aide to Clark. That second item was later taken down without explanation. By then, of course, this Drudge-drama was already "rocking" Democrats -- and delighting Republicans -- across the nation, at least according to Drudge.

The template was pure Monica: Intern has affair with married politician, is betrayed by a "close friend," and finally exposed by the pliant Drudge.

So far, however, the mainstream media has yet to touch the Drudge item, despite heavy promotion by Rush Limbaugh and the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal Web site. Whoever lit this match must have been disappointed when the story that smoldered in newsrooms during the afternoon failed to blaze into a firestorm by early evening. The only exception, so far, is a daily newspaper in Scotland.

(Kerry refuted Drudge on "Imus in the Morning" today, as Don Imus pointed out people were talking about the allegations Drudge was spreading, but no news organizations were actually reporting on them. "Well, there is nothing to report. So there is nothing to talk about. I'm not worried about it. The answer is no," Kerry said.)

Over the years, Kerry's private life has generated its share of gossip. He was a divorced, socially active single man for several years before he remarried. No woman has so far stepped forward to embarrass him in any way -- and the only published report even remotely hinting at marital infidelity is a 6-year-old unfounded clipping from the Boston Herald. Sources in the Kerry camp insist that the Drudge story has no foundation, although they have been predicting since Bush's numbers began to drop that the White House would soon dump its opposition research on their candidate. It may also be worth noting that the Massachusetts senator underwent surgery and radiation treatment last year for prostate cancer.

Was the Drudge item a late hit by an angry Democrat seeking revenge, or a plant by desperate Republicans hoping to distract attention from the president's problems? Lacking proof, the most pertinent questions are the standards of forensic inquiry: Cui bono (who benefits)? And who had the motive, method and opportunity?

Drudge's allegations set off a chain of speculation. Certainly some Democrats wondered if the evidence-free item came from Lehane, who declined public comment this afternoon. Lehane has a reputation as an often rough operator, and that may provide a pretext for Drudge to smear him, too. Following Lehane's dismissal from the Kerry campaign some months ago, the tone of his remarks about his former employer occasionally sounded vengeful. If Clark actually uttered the nasty remark as quoted by Drudge, the general might have heard such rumors from his sharp-edged consultant. But then if Clark believed Kerry was about to "implode," he might not have dropped out of the primary race -- or decided to endorse the Massachusetts senator, as he is expected to do on Friday.

A source close to Lehane vehemently denied to me that Lehane had peddled any rumors about Kerry -- and turned attention back toward the White House as Drudge's likely source. "My assessment is that this is not merely a serendipitous event," he said.

The Drudge item blaming Lehane quoted Craig Crawford, a former Democratic operative who now works as a consultant and columnist for MSNBC. Within 10 minutes after Drudge posted the Kerry intern item, Crawford sent a memo to his superiors that said the story was "something Chris Lehane (clark press secy) has shopped around for a long time." According to Crawford, someone at MSNBC promptly leaked his memo to Drudge. But when Lehane called Crawford with a loudly indignant denial, the MSNBC columnist quickly issued a public retraction. He said:

"The comments attributed to me are from a private email to television news associates based on conversations with Democratic campaign operatives. I did not consider any of it confirmed enough to report or publish. I can only verify that Chris Lehane's rivals in other Democratic campaigns made these claims and I have found no independent source to confirm it. Which is why we did not go with the story. But then someone sent my email to others, which is the only reason it got into the public domain." In other words, there is no proof that Lehane circulated the rumor, let alone that the rumor has any basis in reality.

Once again, Drudge has raised questions -- but they may not be the ones he seeks to raise. The first is about journalistic standards. The second is the identity of his anonymous sources.

Journalists must ask themselves why the rumor of a private peccadillo deserves their attention and resources in the 2004 campaign. The press faces a more important issue: learning from its own failure to report the false rationale and abused intelligence that drove the nation to war.

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Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. - H.L. Mencken

The women isn't talking, but her father said he thought Kerry was scum and he felt she could do better. Take that for whatever you want. I've not made up my mind if it's a rumor or not and I don't care. I'll say exactly what I said through the Clinton thing. His personal life is just that.

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Jason
Lynn Swann 06'

"Individualism is absent when other peoples' standards, not reality and reason, are ones primary guide."