Ricky West has a fine self-produced video up; make sure you check it out. And I actually got an email this morning from John McCain asking for donations to the Bush campaign (yes, hold the irony with that one):
Today we face the greatest test of our generation, defending our nation from a depraved, malevolent force that opposes our every interest and hates every value we hold dear. There was no avoiding this war but we will survive. Our enemies must not.
In this challenging time, I am grateful for the leadership of President George W. Bush and his steadfast resolve in defending our nation. He has led this country with moral clarity about the stakes involved and the strength to achieve unconditional victory.
Our President has not wavered in his determination to make this world a better, safer, freer place. Our nation must not yield in this long, tough fight to vanquish international terrorism and with George W. Bush as our President, it will not.
My friends, this is the most important election of our lifetime and I wouldn’t be writing you if I didn’t firmly believe in President Bush’s leadership and the need for his re-election in these challenging times. As Democrats gather in Boston, I am asking you to demonstrate your strong support for President Bush by making a contribution to his re-election campaign at www.GeorgeWBush.com/JohnMcCain/ today.
To the work of many American generations who protected our interests and championed our values abroad must now be added the defense of our freedoms here at home from a clear and present danger. We are very fortunate that in these challenging days we have a President and Vice President that have demonstrated time and again the determined, clear thinking necessary to prevail in this global fight between good and evil.
Yup. You know, I keep thinking that if McCain had been president instead of Bush, the Left would hate him just as much – he’d undoubtedly have done a lot of the same things in terms of foreign policy, he’s certainly no more diplomatic than Bush, and his background as a pilot from a Navy family would probably have led to him being characterized as a mad bomber and the like, in terms pretty well opposite to the attacks on Bush for not having seen combat.
I don’t think you’re correct here. Certainly the left always moans about the right and vice-versa, but lefties have several major bones of contention with Bush that they didn’t have with, eg, Reagan. (And yes, I know many Dems hated Reagan, but so too did many Republicans rabidly hate Clinton, so we probably shouldn’t drift down that tangent.)
Just to take one major issue:
McCain was a soldier, and would have listened to soldiers’ opinions regarding how to fight the Iraq war and how to make the transition to peace. Bush was a spoiled and wealthy draft dodger, and listened to ideologues who know no more about actual war than I do about facing Pedro Martinez with a 3-2 count and the game on the line.
What did Bush do to generals who disagreed with Rumsfeld’s wildly optimistic notions? He fired them or otherwise shut them up. I have my doubts that McCain would have done that.
I know this doesn’t fit into your preconceptions of “the Left”, but we’re not a bunch of pantywaists. You can argue that all lefties hate all wars, but if you’ll look at the history of the 20th century, and ask yourself who were the main wartime presidents, you’ll see that they were Dems.
How quickly Colin Powell is forgotten….
Wrong and wrong. First of all the generous (liberal?) use of the term “Hate” by those on the Right in reference to those on the Left is out of hand. That’s my big problem with Jonah Goldberg’s column upthread. those on the outside (ie the Right and their lackeys) don’t get to peek in and declare how “all”, “every” or “nobody” on the Left thinks or feels about anything.
I think George W. Bush is absolutely the worst President in my lifetime, if not history. I think his policies are horrific, and I find his style extremely grating and at other times embarrassing. I despise many of his techniques and think he is bad for the country. Guess what? That doesn’t mean I hate him or that you or Jonah Goldberg get to declare that I do.
I have tremendous respect for John McCain, more respect in most ways, than I do for John Kerry. I would have loved for McCain to have joined Kerry on the ticket. I would still choose Kerry over McCain for President because of policy differences I have with McCain, but there is absolutely no basis for a statement that the Left would hate McCain like they “allegedly” hate Bush. He might be too conservative for me and enough of a hawk that he might have made similar decisions to Bush, but I would gladly take eight years of McCain over the first four (or God forbid, four more) years of Bush.
I think this country would be in much better hands and much better shape if McCain were President instead of Bush. But I’d still be supporting a Democrat this fall, and I think I speak for a lot of Dems on the center or left when I say that.
Following up on McCain, the harshest criticism I’ve heard about him has actually come from his right. Or to be more accurate, the idealogues like Rush and his opponents such as Bush and Rove; all of whom have hinted that McCain’s “not all there” after his POW ordeal. A truly disgraceful and inaccurate thing to say. Then there was Hastert’s ridiculous posturing that McCain doesn’t understand the sacrifices of War.
On the left, even his harshest critics (and I cannot think of any at the moment) grudgingly admit respect for McCain’s service and steadfast principles.
Love the hypotheticals.
If McCain were president, the left would have been just as spiteful.
If Gore had been president, we’d be under constant fear of another attack by Al Qeada and Bin Laden would still roam free.
How ironic that one is.
Remember how so many pointed to Bush’s strong leadership after 9/11 and expressed relief at not having had that weenie Gore in the office?
Fat load of good that strong leadership did us.
We’re still being constantly put at fear of a possible terrorist attack and Bin Laden still roams free.