SW's Energy Gap: "On the last month of the campaign
I agree with Hal Crowther, who has written, 'I don't think it's accurate to describe America as polarized between Democrats and Republicans, or between liberals and conservatives. It's polarized between the people who believe George Bush and the people who do not'. For the half of us who don't believe George Bush, the thought of four more years of this is truly frightening. This isn't your normal Democrat/Republican food fight. This is life or death stuff.
We, who don't believe Bush are a pretty large group. And we are growing rapidly. Republican Senators like Chuck Hagel and RIchard Lugar and Johm McCain don't believe Bush. An overwhelming fraction of the intelligence community, doesn't believe Bush. A huge majority of the scientific community doesn't believe Bush. The more educated you are, the less likely you are to believe Bush. The higher the average IQ in the state you are from the less likely you are to believe George Bush. The more creative and independent you are the less likely it is that you believe Bush.
Between now and the election it is up to all of us to explain to those who believe, that they have been conned. It's never easy to hear that, but time is running out. They need to hear that they have been tricked by a cynical scam operation. Highjacked by a gang of liars and thieves. Kerry and Edwards are doing their part to show the country the real George Bush and DIck Cheney, rather than the cartoon images that have been created to dupe the rubes. They have made a good start in the last two debates, and there is the hope that the more the country sees of the real George Bush, the fewer of them will decide that this is a cult they want to sign up with. There are less than four weeks to reach these folks. And the stakes couldn't be higher.
From now until the election, the primary issue is the honesty of the Bush administration.
This is an unfortunate turn of events for them. Right now, they need to convince people that things are going well and they are making progress in Iraq. But there is only one way to do that. To lie.
If the fundamental issue that the challenger has raised is that you are 'not honest', every time you are caught in a lie, you validate the attack. So every time they try to defend the situation in Iraq, they prove that Kerry is right to question their honesty. They saw that four years ago where they were able to focus attention on trivial lies that Al Gore may or may not have told. This time, the lies are far from trivial. These are lies that are responsible of the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people.