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This isn't a black and white issue. This isn't my guy is 100% good and your guy is 100% bad. It is coming down to his is best for the country. In the 24+ years that John Kerry has served as a Senator, I can safely say that he has been elected a few times. I can safely say that, while in office, the citizens of Mass. were not polarized and ready to throw him out of office. I can safely say that he hasn't had any "scandals" in his service in the Senate. I can safely say that John Kerry was ELECTED and then RE ELECTED without question.
John Kerry volunteered to put his body into Vietnam, when others were going to Canada to avoid the draft. Upon returning from Vietnam, he then courageously stood up against the establishment and the military to talk about the atrocities that were being committed in Viet Nam and openly protested a war that he sacrificed his life in. A very unpopular decision that he is paying for 30 years later. A vet that went to Nam and saw active duty and then came home and protested what he saw.....COURAGE Some of the same courage that our soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan are using right now. John Kerry is not a quitter. When it all but appeared that he was going to lose in Iowa and his campaign was falling flat, he took strong steps MADE SOME CHANGES and FIXED his campaign and mortgaged his home to finance his continued campaign and then won Iowa. This is courage and intelligence.
John Kerry may not be "Mr. cowboy soundbite guy that everybody wants to have a beer with, but, he is a man that has shown stregnth by putting HIS OWN life, neck and finances on the line to get what he wants and to fight for what he believes in. He knew what he wanted and he was FLEXIBLE enough to know when he had to make changes to stay in the race.
Black ..... White...... I know this is a much easier concept for you to grasp. Looking at Bush I understand why you think this way and why you crave this type of answer. Do yourself a favor - grow beyond surface answers and questions. Know that things have many layers and to properly address issues, you don't answer in 4 - 8 word sentences and stop. Life is not that simple, although a large number of Americans are acting like it is.
Arianna Huffington says it so much better than I:
"As far as the "flip flop" name you keep giving Kerry... How about the flip flops for Bush? On the 2004 campaign trail, it’s the pathologically inconsistent Bush attempting to portray John Kerry as a two-faced flip-flopper.
It's become the Bush-Cheney campaign mantra. GOP talking points 1 through 100. The president's go-to laugh and applause line:
"Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue," chided Bush at a spring fundraiser. "My opponent clearly has strong beliefs, they just don't last very long." Ba-da-bum! (Incidentally, how is this consistent with Bush's other contention, that Kerry is a rock-ribbed liberal?)
Or as Dick "Not Peaches and Cream" Cheney ominously put it at a Republican fundraiser: "These are not times for leaders who shift with the political winds, saying one thing one day and another the next."
I couldn't f---ing agree more, Mr. Cheney. But it's your man George W. who can't seem to pick a position and stick to it. He's reversed course more times than Capt. Kirk battling Khan in the midst of the Mutara Nebula. Gone back on his word more times than Tony Blundetto. Flip-flopped more frequently than a blind gymnast with an inner-ear infection.
The list of Bush major policy U-turns is as audacious as it is long. Among the whiplash-inducing lowlights:
In September 2001, Bush said capturing bin Laden was "our number one priority." By March 2002, he was claiming, "I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important."
In October 2001, he was dead-set against the need for a Department of Homeland Security. Seven months later, he thought it was a great idea.
In May 2002, he opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission. Four months later, he supported it.
During the 2000 campaign, he said that gay marriage was a states' rights issue: "The states can do what they want to do." During the 2004 campaign, he called for a constitutional ban on gay marriage.
Dizzy yet? No? OK:
Bush supported CO2 caps, then opposed them. He opposed trade tariffs, then he didn't. Then he did again. He was against nation building, then he was OK with it. We'd found WMD, then we hadn't. Saddam was linked to Osama, then he wasn't. Then he was … sorta. Chalabi was in, then he was out. Way out.
In fact, Bush's entire Iraq misadventure has been one big costly, deadly flip-flop:
We didn't need more troops, then we did. We didn't need more money, then we did. Preemption was a great idea — on to Syria, Iran and North Korea! Then it wasn't — hello, diplomacy! Baathists were the bad guys, then Baathists were our buds. We didn't need the U.N., then we did.
And all this from a man who, once upon a time, made "credibility" a key to his appeal."
This campaign has been all about the pot calling the kettle "black".
Kerry is the only chance out of this mess. We already know what the Bush team is capable of.
cidliz2004
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