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In politics, let’s have some get-real moments

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

It has been a few weeks since I weighed in on politics, but I have a few important things to say or at least a couple of important ideas to float.

First, I want to destroy this notion that al Qaeda wants a John Kerry presidency and that they’ll try to pull something before the election to guarantee those results, much like they did in Spain.

That is complete bull-honkey.

If al Qaeda strikes the U.S. before the election, Bush wins in a landslide. No contest. Why does it seem like I’m the only one who sees this?

Let’s say al Qaeda blows up the Empire State Building in October. One of the largest buildings in the world comes down, New York is left with another terrible scar and thousands of people die.

After the terrible shock, all of the flags go up and the country attempts to present a united front again, much like after 9/11.

The President shows up at the site of the crumpled building, gives a great speech, because that’s what his (or any president’s) speech writers are hired for and all of the past four years of mistakes, miscalculations and “catastrophic successes” are forgotten and or forgiven.

This guy’s our leader and we know he’s going to go after al Qaeda again, until Iran really steps up their nuclear program, anyway. When a country appears under attack, the chances of that leader being voted out are slim. Especially if you’re not from Spain.

So, please, I beg of you, don’t believe the hype. You’re hearing it all the time in newspapers, Web sites, news programs on television, but it is not true. If al Qaeda really wants a John Kerry presidency, and I’m not convinced they do, they aren’t going to strike before the elections.

Al Qaeda just wants Americans dead and unfortunately, we’re going to have more terrorist strikes here in the future, regardless of who the president is. They don’t care.

Secondly, Iraq is not a “catastrophic success,” it is a catastrophe. Over the weekend, Republican senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, John McCain of Arizona and Richard Lugar of Indiana spoke out against the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq and its reconstruction.

The CIA came out last week and gave a pretty bleak outlook on Iraq, stating that a civil war in the country appears inevitable. It is estimated that American soldiers will be in Iraq for at least another nine years and that there will need to be increases in the number of troops there.

All of these highly esteemed senators called for a renewed ground offensive to help secure areas that have been taken over by insurgents.

The U.S. will do this, eventually, but unfortunately a renewed ground offensive means an increase in U.S. casualties, and more troops dying before the election would look really bad.

Especially after Colin Powell, who I am guessing will not be back if there is a second Bush term, came out last week and stated that much of the information that he presented about WMDs being in Iraq before Congress was based on faulty information and was largely incorrect.

Oh, yeah, and there was that thing on the aircraft carrier with the banner that said “Mission Accomplished.”

Oops.

Lastly, the status quo is not good enough. Earlier this summer, I got into a conversation with a Republican at a party. The conversation quickly grew into a debate, though we kept it as friendly as possible and both cherished the fact that we lived in a country where we could hold two diametrically opposed ideas.

The one statement that really bothered me was this: I had suggested that there were important issues to focus on domestically and that large portions of the money being spent in Iraq would be better spent stateside.

He responded by saying, “I don’t know about you, but I think this is a great country. Things are really good here and it’s OK to focus on other countries.”

This is a great country and things are pretty good. I mean, I’ve got a job, a roof over my head, food in my belly and health insurance that protects me and my family. Not everybody has those things, though.

Worse, not everybody even has the chance for all of those things. There are more people living in poverty now than there were in 2000, there are more people without health insurance than there were in 2000, there are more people without jobs now and there is a record deficit that just keeps on growing.

Bush isn’t necessarily at fault for all of this, but if you are the president, you own the entire presidency, the good and the bad.

In addition, no one in this country should ever settle for the status quo. We can always try harder, work harder and do better. Nobody is perfect and yet perfection should always be the goal.

The Bush presidency hasn’t been the best presidency ever, even the most hard-core Republicans have to admit that, and by running on the theory that, “All is well and we should stay the course,” is ludicrous.

Anybody who thinks this country can’t vastly improve over the next four years, regardless of who is in charge, needs to get real.