The first debate

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

anybody but Bush...

I actually feel stronger about Kerry after last night, I'm still not thrilled about him but he's the lesser of the two evils.

To me, a life long republican, this seems to be the prevailing sentiment in the Democratic camp. Quite frankly, I am no huge fan of Bush (Dammit - the word is nu- clee -er), and if the Dems had a viable candidate I could be tempted to vote for him/her. This, however, does not appear to be the case to me.

Obviously, Kerry was the more polished debater and, I think, made his points more clearly. I agree that, when Bush was "on message", he sounded like a broken record ("Okay - they told me to say 'no mixed messages' whenever I can't think of anything to say"). I also think that when he actually was talking about his beliefs and "speaking from the heart", as it were, he was smoother and very clearly communicated his underlying convictions. However, these moments were fewer than I would have hoped.

While more polished, Kerry's entire Iraq position seems to be - "I would have disarmed Hussein but just in a better fashion. I also would have a better post-Iraq plan." As for foreign policy, it's the old global approval thing.

I started to write out my full response to Kerry's statements but realized it would take most of the day and just be waaaaaaaaay to long. So - as concisely as possible - why (as to foreign policy) I will not vote for Kerry: the USA can not and should not base it's actions on approval from the "global community". That is not to say we should act selfishly or with complete disregard to other nations, but that, ultimately, the decision as to what is in the best interests of the US must reside solely with the President. Our best interests should not be subject to a popularity contest, run up the flagpole or in any other way be determined by their approval by other nations. Despite his protestations that he will reserve the right to act preemptively - Kerry is clearly of the "only if you think its okay" school of foreign policy.

Well I could have gone on (in fact I did, I deleted 10 inches of text which was intended to be a more complete statement but which probably needed about another 10-20 inches to close all the loose ends. lol).