[GraniteStateConservative]

3) Iraq war - I supported our president going into Iraq and I still do support the war effort. But what I've seen with Iraq so far is a large amount of mismanagement and that seriously concerns me. The defense department should have not "assumed" that the Iraqis would welcome us with open arms and should have been better prepared for the attacks that our troops face right now. And as the whole WMD's thing goes, I don't buy the argument that the President lied about them. However, the fact that George Tenet gave the president faulty intelligence is no excuse. Bush should've fired the guy's ass the day he took office, or at least after the intelligence failure's that led up to 9/11.

You can't fire Tenet. Everyone is in the same boat on WMD. Firing Tenet would just poke another hole in the boat, and wouldn't help Bush politically.

[GraniteStateConservative]

2) Department of Homeland Security - I realize that there is need to fight terror on the homefront and keep ourselves safe. But adding another cabinet department is just more bureaucracy that just isn't needed. We could have just as easily created another agency under the defense department to help law enforcement work with the federal government to fight terror. Creating a new cabinet department is something I'd expect from somebody like Clinton, not somebody like Bush.

Well, Reagan created a new Administrative agency and then made it into a Cabinet department for good bureaucratic measure, so no one's perfect, I guess. It wasn't really necessary to do this, you're right. The problem was the way these places operated. You change those by changing who runs these places and you trim out the worthless personnel. The problem is that government employees are protected from normal workplace events like firings for incompetence. And even after all of this, the borders are still open wide. Don't you feel safer, now?

[GraniteStateConservative]

4) Not standing up the democrats in the senate - We control the white house and both houses of congress and yet this president has still let the democrats take advantage of us in the senate. He didn't stand up for Trent Lott after the whole incident at Strom's brthday party resulting in a good experienced leader resigning and being replaced with an inexperienced Frist. Frist has allowed the tax cut to be reduced to 350 billion and has yet to give the democrats any real challenge to their fillibusters on judicial nominees besides that joke of a 30 hour debate-a-thon.

Don't blame Frist for the "tax cut" cut. Bush caved to Voinovich and Snowe. He didn't seal the deal. He's the head salesman. Same with filibusters. They all take cues from Bush and Bush has the job of leading the party, including the senators. He didn't persuade them to go marathon-style, and it's debatable whether he even wanted that.

[GraniteStateConservative]

What state do you live in? If it's a safe Bush state, vote for some third party candidate that best represents your views.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Actually, even if you aren't in a safe Bush state, presidential re-elections don't come down to margins of 500 votes like Florida in 2000 or 300 votes in NM, so vote for whomever you want.

[Sloth]

4)...yet this president has still let the democrats take advantage of us in the senate. He didn't stand up for Trent Lott after the whole incident at Strom's brthday party resulting in a good experienced leader resigning and being replaced with an inexperienced Frist.

When did Trent Lott ever stand up to the Senate Demonrats? He deserves at least as much criticism for spinelessness as the President.

[beachn4fun]

You know a lot of people are having trouble agreeing with everything the President is doing or has to do. But overall I think his job as President has been outstanding. I like his backbone.

No, I don't like his spending, but I remind myself that he has to spend money to build back our defense that was cut so badly when Clinton & Gore came into power. We were hit by the worst attack on our country in years! We have to fight a different war. That means new technology. That is not cheap! Unless you can convince the developers to hand it over to our government and military rather cheaply. Helping the Afghans & Iraqis does not come cheap, either. Oh, don't forget all the natural disasters that the US has suffered in the last four years. So, yeah, these kind of things cost money.

And, besides, for me there is no one else out there I'd even consider voting for. AND.....if I don't vote....a Democrat just might win, and that would be FAR WORSE!