Am I the only one who thinks that every time President Bush speaks, from now, until the election next fall, they should play the Emmy music in the background? I think it would be a great way to let him know what most people think at this point. Forget public opinion polls; just play him off every time he tries to speak. At least it would be funny.
At some point in the near future, I’ll probably start paying more attention to what the candidates are saying. I’ll be voting this year after all. More for the experience than because I think it might actually change anything. For now, though, I’m really just content to set this imbecile neatly on the shelf with all the other presidents. I’m not really sure that I care who wins, just so long as I don’t have to see George W. Bush anymore. And it will be great not to hear about him either. And luckily, I really won’t. He’s not the type to start some big humanitarian effort on the side later in life and he was never good at politics in the first place, so no one will be asking his opinion. Just let him go back to Texas, for God’s sake don’t mess with Texas, and play his video games in peace. Somebody send along a juice box, that should keep him happy for a while. We basically voted him in the first time because he was dopey and funny and Al Gore didn’t pose any less frightening a concept…and because ballots are apparently difficult to handle in Florida. He won the second election because we all wanted to see what he would do with the mess he had made. None of these are great reasons to elect a president, but uninformed decisions have always been what this country excels at.
For the record, I’m not actually against the war in Iraq; at least not entirely. Obviously, it’s clear now that we went to war for stupid reasons but I think we did manage to do some good. It especially pisses me off that some people have no respect for the soldiers fighting there. How would you feel, to come home from a life-threatening, eye-opening experience that you were told was necessary for the freedom of your countrymen, only to have those same citizens look at you with anger and betrayal? Watch a movie, any movie, on the soldiers in Vietnam, and see what that does to people. It doesn’t matter if you agree with the war or not. Just show a little freakin’ compassion. That’s all I’m asking.
Also, I’m not sure I believe that any other president would have handled the situation differently. Admit it: most of you were among those “huddled masses” screaming for retribution at any cost after 9/11. It was a lot easier, after we had all cooled off for a few years to see the gaps in the logic, but we aren’t used to being attacked and we reacted pretty strongly. Any president that hadn’t done something probably would have been lynched on Capitol Hill. That’s not to say that Bush handled it well, or that he wasn’t largely in it for himself and his backers, but cut him some slack… Poor Mr. President was just responding to peer-pressure…as ludicrous as THAT sounds.
Whatever happens on Election Day, at least we’ll have a change. Personally, I’m hoping for a Democrat. Not because I am one, just because we haven’t tried it in a few years and I like to see the bureaucrats in Washington get a little shaken up every once in a while. Make em’ sweat. Keeps em’ on their toes. So whether you hate Bush or love him (Yes, some people STILL love him. God bless the red states.) we’ll soon be seeing the back of him, and it feels like progress to me.
