I don't know what to make of Haiti. I tend to agree with The New Republic's analysis that we were correct to re-install Aristide in the early 1990s, but that he has in good faith not been a good president since then.
I have no clue how Haiti affects the election. Foreign policy is complicated and not easily reduced to ten words or less. At best, it's another example of the Bush administration doing what it thinks is right without so much as thinking about the long-term consequences, but selling that to the American people is tough (especially, when, for instance, things go apparently well in the aftermath).
The Bush ads aren't that offensive. It's going to be difficult to hold an election where it's not appropriate to discuss 9/11. Clearly we should applaud the country for coming together at that time, be it because of Bush or inspite of him. But we should be critical of policy decisions since then, including, oh, I don't know, diverting several hundred thousand troops from Afghanistan to wage war in Iraq.
I am okay with using footage from 9/11. I think I draw the line at the flag-draped coffin. Given that there is no footage of bodies coming home from Iraq, it seems unequal to allow Bush to use footage of coffins from 9/11.
I am okay with Bush using firefighters, even if the firefighters union endorses Kerry.
As I understand it, there's a certain amount of evidence that positive ads don't actually do anything, especially if you don't have any programs to go with them. So it may not matter.
If Kerry adds 40,000 new troops, as he promised, and all of the technology he's proposed, I don't understand how he'd propose to shrink the deficit. The only, and I mean only, way I can see it working is if he agrees to shrink the Navy in order to expand the Army, which, given our current military commitments, is probably the right thing to do.
I'm going to say it again and again: Kerry needs to find parts of the government he can make smaller. Shrink the tax code, shrink stupid military programs like missle defense and tactical nuclear weapons, merge things like import-export banks, etc.
Is it me, or is this election getting really nasty really fast. I mean, no one is even trying to be above the fray.
It's like we've given up all pretense of having a reasonable debate on, well, anything.
Jobs are killing the prez. Credibility is going down.
You can run a 2-minute long ad putting Bush's predictions next to reality and destroy his credibility. It's going to be wonderful.
