~ Political Commentary ~
In early February, the topic of politics filled the Pub. On the conservative right were some very
passionate viewpoints. Pubmaster Whitey played devils advocate (on the not so right), and took a
beating for the website’s early backing of John Kerry.
It should be noted that the Pub is listed in Politics and Beer magazine as registered Democrats,
and thus have backed Kerry. The listing of JK late last year, was to support what we thought was the
best choice to run against George Bush in November. Does that mean that we will back the Democrat
without question, or is there a chance we could support the incumbent? Never one to blindly follow
any party, Kerry was simply our choice for “those guys”. Let’s take a look at how we see things
between the two front-runners for the 2004 campaign.
The Man and His People ~ George W. Bush
First and foremast, we didn’t support Bush in 2000. To be fair and honest though, there is a lot of
good in the 43rd President.
We think George Bush is a man of character. We think the President is a man of principal. We also
think the following.
Following 9/11 the President delivered one of, if not the most impressive speeches we had ever heard
a President or any politician orate, in person. His stance against terrorism was refreshing,
straightforward, and decisive. One quality of this President is his decisive manner. Leaders who
work to appease, usually get nowhere. The saying “not to decide is to decide” does not apply to this
man. Of course, the turn side of that argument is that even though Bush may be steadfast in his
course, what is the consequence if is he is off course? Time for a golf analogy.
Whitey tees it up on the first hole, a Par Four dogleg left and crushes it straight
down Broadway 300 yards. His aim was true, but in his enthusiasm he goes
about 100 yards too far. His Par Four is now a Par Five. It is going to take a lot
of ability and luck to par the hole now and make things right. This is possibly
how George W. Bush may be playing the first hole, at least in Foreign Policy.
He sees where he wants to hit it and strikes it well, but if his depth perception is
off, it may take a whole lot of undoing to get to the green.
More Pro-Bush talk.
We think the President has surrounded himself with a good team. Vice President Dick Chaney is a
no nonsense man (Haliburton be damned!). If Bush is the carrot, Chaney certainly is the stick. A
stick in which no foe would want to unleash.
Colin Powell in our opinion is one of the trustworthiest men of this generation. Hold on to that
thought for just a bit.
Donald Rumsfeld is a straight shooter.
John Ashcroft in many circumstances scares us. Three out of four isn’t bad.
The Agenda
Following 9/11 the President acted decisively and gave our country strength. For this he should be
applauded. He took on the Taliban in Afghanistan and won. He led the chase after Osama Bin
Asswipe. He looked Sadam Hussein straight in the eye and said “we aren’t bullshitting around
anymore, do as we ask, and as you agreed or pay the price”. Don't Mess With Texas at it's finest!
Hussein blinked, and shortly afterward found himself hiding in a hole eating a box of American
Twinkies. That’s the foreign policy agenda as we see it.
Bush’s tax cuts have shown to be good for the economy after a time of modest recession. We feel
however, that in the long term good of the country, these tax cuts may not be the answer. Huge
national debt is something that will remain long after Bush has left office. These cuts in taxes have
also lessened state funding. The long and short of it is this. While a check from Uncle Sam sounds
like a good idea and may win votes, state programs are not receiving their due funding. The Federal
Government has mandated many of these programs. The “Leave No Child Behind” education
program for example is mandated by the government, yet the funding to carry out this, and many of
other programs has been cut due to the sluggish economy. Someone will have to pay for them. NJ
taxpayers and citizens every other state are footing this bill. My guess until someone tells me
otherwise, is that we are paying more than we would have without the tax cuts.
The Result
The result of Bush’s economic policy is yet to be known, and our concerns are laid out above. We
haven’t even touched on the country’s recent loss of jobs. This may very well be the number one
issue debated during this election.
For us here at the Pub though, the question of whether you can be pro Bush or not, is his actions
concerning the war in Iraq. The issues here we think are two-fold.
George W. Bush looked into the television cameras in the spring of 2003 and told this country that
WMD were in Iraq, and their refusal to fess them up were the reason we decided to invade and
overthrow that government. At this point I think two things should also be mentioned. The
argument Colin Powell used in his address to the United Nations was compelling and convincing. We
agreed that based on that evidence, an attack on Iraq was justified. This website in the past has said,
“if it’s a good enough reason for Powell, it’s good enough for us”. We backed the President and will
not become Monday morning quarterbacks.
The puzzling issue to us is this though. We didn’t need to go there. We didn’t need to convince
American’s of this potential threat. We would have been perfectly comfortable with something along
the lines of “you had your chance and you decided to mess with the wrong guys”, or “time’s up to
comply”. No frightening talk of WMD was needed. No justification of unseating a brutal dictator was
required. The world is full of brutal dictators, and we certainly don’t need to go down that slippery
slope.
Now it appears that the intelligence was incorrect, and there are no WMD in Iraq (or it can’t be
proven that there are, or were). The question here is a simple one. If the head of a country, or the
head of a major corporation puts his name and reputation on a decision, what should the consequence
be if that person was incorrect in his/her judgment? Should the President have to pay for his
administration’s error with his job? Where exactly does the buck stop?
This is the key issue for us here at Whitey’s Pub.
John Kerry
The political discussion at the Pub began after a CNN poll showed John Kerry ahead of President
Bush, should the election be held nine months prior to Election Day. “The #*@! Liberal news
agencies are all bashing the President, and kissing up to the Democrats! All you hear is Democrat,
Democrat, Democrat!” At this point, the devil’s advocate tending bar replied, “dude, you are hearing
so much about them because they are the news. The Republicans have a pretty good idea of who is
going to represent them in November, don’t you think?”
More beer was poured.
Like George Bush, we like John Kerry’s character, background, and ideals. We like his vision for
the economy, health care, education, and perhaps most importantly, we like his concept of stopping
what could conceivably be, the Bush War machine. The most enticing part of John Kerry’s candidacy
may be, that he is the other side of the equation. If you think the Bush administration has targeted
one too many nations, has isolated our country within the greater picture of working together with
the rest of the free world, has created a bad taste toward Americans to every other nation, then John
Kerry is the man for you. Also, his wife would be a blast to have as the 1st Lady.
Can John Kerry deliver on the many promises he is currently advocating? Not sure. Is John Kerry
the best man to stand toe to toe with the President throughout summer and early fall of 2004 and
debate these issues. We think so.
While John Kerry has been somewhat promoted on this website, we are not ready yet to hand him the
job of President. We are open minded, undecided, and ready to listen to each man. It may very well
come down to a decision made once inside the ballot box. We would like to think though, that this
decision, and perhaps one of the most important Presidential elections since the Depression will come
down to where we stand on these issues, and who we feel is best qualified to carry out what we
consider is the best direction for our country, and our world.
Whatever direction you want to see the United States head towards, it will be evident in the vote you
cast.
passionate viewpoints. Pubmaster Whitey played devils advocate (on the not so right), and took a
beating for the website’s early backing of John Kerry.
It should be noted that the Pub is listed in Politics and Beer magazine as registered Democrats,
and thus have backed Kerry. The listing of JK late last year, was to support what we thought was the
best choice to run against George Bush in November. Does that mean that we will back the Democrat
without question, or is there a chance we could support the incumbent? Never one to blindly follow
any party, Kerry was simply our choice for “those guys”. Let’s take a look at how we see things
between the two front-runners for the 2004 campaign.
The Man and His People ~ George W. Bush
First and foremast, we didn’t support Bush in 2000. To be fair and honest though, there is a lot of
good in the 43rd President.
We think George Bush is a man of character. We think the President is a man of principal. We also
think the following.
Following 9/11 the President delivered one of, if not the most impressive speeches we had ever heard
a President or any politician orate, in person. His stance against terrorism was refreshing,
straightforward, and decisive. One quality of this President is his decisive manner. Leaders who
work to appease, usually get nowhere. The saying “not to decide is to decide” does not apply to this
man. Of course, the turn side of that argument is that even though Bush may be steadfast in his
course, what is the consequence if is he is off course? Time for a golf analogy.
Whitey tees it up on the first hole, a Par Four dogleg left and crushes it straight
down Broadway 300 yards. His aim was true, but in his enthusiasm he goes
about 100 yards too far. His Par Four is now a Par Five. It is going to take a lot
of ability and luck to par the hole now and make things right. This is possibly
how George W. Bush may be playing the first hole, at least in Foreign Policy.
He sees where he wants to hit it and strikes it well, but if his depth perception is
off, it may take a whole lot of undoing to get to the green.
More Pro-Bush talk.
We think the President has surrounded himself with a good team. Vice President Dick Chaney is a
no nonsense man (Haliburton be damned!). If Bush is the carrot, Chaney certainly is the stick. A
stick in which no foe would want to unleash.
Colin Powell in our opinion is one of the trustworthiest men of this generation. Hold on to that
thought for just a bit.
Donald Rumsfeld is a straight shooter.
John Ashcroft in many circumstances scares us. Three out of four isn’t bad.
The Agenda
Following 9/11 the President acted decisively and gave our country strength. For this he should be
applauded. He took on the Taliban in Afghanistan and won. He led the chase after Osama Bin
Asswipe. He looked Sadam Hussein straight in the eye and said “we aren’t bullshitting around
anymore, do as we ask, and as you agreed or pay the price”. Don't Mess With Texas at it's finest!
Hussein blinked, and shortly afterward found himself hiding in a hole eating a box of American
Twinkies. That’s the foreign policy agenda as we see it.
Bush’s tax cuts have shown to be good for the economy after a time of modest recession. We feel
however, that in the long term good of the country, these tax cuts may not be the answer. Huge
national debt is something that will remain long after Bush has left office. These cuts in taxes have
also lessened state funding. The long and short of it is this. While a check from Uncle Sam sounds
like a good idea and may win votes, state programs are not receiving their due funding. The Federal
Government has mandated many of these programs. The “Leave No Child Behind” education
program for example is mandated by the government, yet the funding to carry out this, and many of
other programs has been cut due to the sluggish economy. Someone will have to pay for them. NJ
taxpayers and citizens every other state are footing this bill. My guess until someone tells me
otherwise, is that we are paying more than we would have without the tax cuts.
The Result
The result of Bush’s economic policy is yet to be known, and our concerns are laid out above. We
haven’t even touched on the country’s recent loss of jobs. This may very well be the number one
issue debated during this election.
For us here at the Pub though, the question of whether you can be pro Bush or not, is his actions
concerning the war in Iraq. The issues here we think are two-fold.
George W. Bush looked into the television cameras in the spring of 2003 and told this country that
WMD were in Iraq, and their refusal to fess them up were the reason we decided to invade and
overthrow that government. At this point I think two things should also be mentioned. The
argument Colin Powell used in his address to the United Nations was compelling and convincing. We
agreed that based on that evidence, an attack on Iraq was justified. This website in the past has said,
“if it’s a good enough reason for Powell, it’s good enough for us”. We backed the President and will
not become Monday morning quarterbacks.
The puzzling issue to us is this though. We didn’t need to go there. We didn’t need to convince
American’s of this potential threat. We would have been perfectly comfortable with something along
the lines of “you had your chance and you decided to mess with the wrong guys”, or “time’s up to
comply”. No frightening talk of WMD was needed. No justification of unseating a brutal dictator was
required. The world is full of brutal dictators, and we certainly don’t need to go down that slippery
slope.
Now it appears that the intelligence was incorrect, and there are no WMD in Iraq (or it can’t be
proven that there are, or were). The question here is a simple one. If the head of a country, or the
head of a major corporation puts his name and reputation on a decision, what should the consequence
be if that person was incorrect in his/her judgment? Should the President have to pay for his
administration’s error with his job? Where exactly does the buck stop?
This is the key issue for us here at Whitey’s Pub.
John Kerry
The political discussion at the Pub began after a CNN poll showed John Kerry ahead of President
Bush, should the election be held nine months prior to Election Day. “The #*@! Liberal news
agencies are all bashing the President, and kissing up to the Democrats! All you hear is Democrat,
Democrat, Democrat!” At this point, the devil’s advocate tending bar replied, “dude, you are hearing
so much about them because they are the news. The Republicans have a pretty good idea of who is
going to represent them in November, don’t you think?”
More beer was poured.
Like George Bush, we like John Kerry’s character, background, and ideals. We like his vision for
the economy, health care, education, and perhaps most importantly, we like his concept of stopping
what could conceivably be, the Bush War machine. The most enticing part of John Kerry’s candidacy
may be, that he is the other side of the equation. If you think the Bush administration has targeted
one too many nations, has isolated our country within the greater picture of working together with
the rest of the free world, has created a bad taste toward Americans to every other nation, then John
Kerry is the man for you. Also, his wife would be a blast to have as the 1st Lady.
Can John Kerry deliver on the many promises he is currently advocating? Not sure. Is John Kerry
the best man to stand toe to toe with the President throughout summer and early fall of 2004 and
debate these issues. We think so.
While John Kerry has been somewhat promoted on this website, we are not ready yet to hand him the
job of President. We are open minded, undecided, and ready to listen to each man. It may very well
come down to a decision made once inside the ballot box. We would like to think though, that this
decision, and perhaps one of the most important Presidential elections since the Depression will come
down to where we stand on these issues, and who we feel is best qualified to carry out what we
consider is the best direction for our country, and our world.
Whatever direction you want to see the United States head towards, it will be evident in the vote you
cast.
| "Team Bush" Guys We Like |
| Three out of Four Ain't Bad |
| Or... |
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