Attila,
If you want to talk about AWOL, shouldn't you say something about Bush's so called service in the Texas National Guard. You mean like the retraction of the Texas Air National Guard Commander who originally gave this "AWOL" story to the Boston Globe. Bush fulfilled his obligation. Sure, Kerry has a great military record, it's what he did AFTER the military that concerns me. This begins with his quite staged throwing of his medals (that turned out NOT to be his) over the White House Wall, to his "impromptu" speech before congress prepared by the Kennedy people, to his dismal record on the military and intelligence bills. Yes, Kerry had a good military record, but so did Benedict Arnold and Tim McVeigh. No, this isn't comparing Kerry to Arnold or McVeigh, just making the point that a good military record doesn't mean a good President. Plus, have you seen the recent numbers, Kerry is ahead and leading by 5 to 10% against Bush. That all depends on which poll you look at. My biggest problem with Bush is not always what he does but how he does it. Here in PA the college teachers are on the verge of striking because of a mere 40 million deficit, where is our help? We can spend over a 100 billion in Iraq in just one year, but we can't properly fund our states. It's the State's duty to fund the State, the Federal Government shouldn't be involved in Education. Now that we are though, it should be noted that Bush has spent more on Education than Clinton and the Democrats did. I'm not trying to get to political, and indeed I'm registered as independent, but I feel that we can do much better than our current leader who had given us massive debt and PR nightmare abroad. Who cares about Sadamm, The families of a million butchered Iraqis care' the families of Israelis (and Palestinians) blown to pieces by Saddam funded terrorists care...24 million Iraqis care. where is my Osama? In a no man's land between Pakistan and Afghanistan...we're still looking. Also, if you could openly vote as a Dub member, I'm sure that most would probably vote for Bush because he is so Christian. I thought this country represented freedom for everyone, not just the Christian Right, don't we have better things to do than ammending the constitution so gays can't get married? 70% of the US seems to think this is a good thing. Is this truly the most pressing issue our society faces that we have to ammend the constitution? Actually the issue is activist judges who make laws by fiat rather than their duty.Sometimes, I feel like I'm living during the Prohibition time period. No wonder this country spawned all kinds of crazy cults and religious fundamentals, i.e. Russel and his Org. And the ACLU and all those other whack organizations.
Biousis,
You mentioned repairing the reputation of the US? To what, that in which the world saw us as sell outs who wouldn't stand up for ourselves? The world now knows that at least as long as Bush is around we won't take too much BS...it convinced Libya.
Kerry will get the Dem nomination, it will be an interesting (and ugly [vindictive]) national debate...I foresee Bush winning.