What the Swifties Can't Change
Rafe Colburn has (temporarily I hope) thrown in the towel on this election. He think Bush has won it and the Swifties helped. Rafe was doing what he could. He was collecting links through a swiftvets tag (RSS) in del.icio.us. He and his wife even gave to the DNC, and a door-to-door canvaser at that! (Update: Towel not thrown in.)
The swiftvets attack has been working, but I don't feel that it can succeed in saving the election for President Bush. All it can do right no is demoralize people that weren't strong Kerry supporters but were "voting donkey" anyway and maybe give a few people moments of pause when they are getting polled. There are a number of things that the ads cannot and will not change, and these are the reasons why President Bush will loose.
The Economy (aka The War on 98% of Tax Payers)
Things aren't going so hot. Even the president has abandoned his oh-so-catchy phrase "turned the corner." Jobs, consumer confidence, oil prices, Cayman Islands headquarters and how can we forget that the "give people their money back tax relief" has turned into an increased tax burden for 98% of the country.
Iraq (aka The War Without Reason)
In order of appearance:
- Weapons of Mass Destruction (Does only Richard Perle remain in the group of true believers)
- Terrorists (Sure, it's true that they flooded in after we invaded, so?)
- Democracy
No weapons. No terrorists until we opened the door. Democracy at the barrel of a gun. I think Lewis Black had the right take on this.
I think it's really phenomenal that we're bringing democracy to Iraq. I can't wait to see how we do it. What? Do we give them our civics books? "Read this, it's crackerjack material!" We'll be back next Thursday, we'll give you a test you little f***s.
The Environment (aka The War on Terra)
As dirty air and water continues to affect families, the results (remember, they matter) of Bush administration policies, written by industry leaders to benefit the very industries they work for, will be seen for what they are. They are trading the health of the American people for short-term profits.
The War on Terror (aka Ace in the Sleeve)
There hasn't been another terrorist attack on the United States, and more than likely some have been foiled. Although the cynic in me has to feel that if one had been truly foiled the Bush adminstration would crow about it from now until the end of time. The real problem is that we have basically ignored the root cause of terrorism and have fallen under the false belief that you can kill all the terrorists. As if there were a finite number of them. The idea that you can kill all the current ones and scare anyone else from becoming one is ludicrous, and yet it seems to be our national strategy.
