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Guess Which Candidate Our Enemies Want to Lose in 2004?
Newhouse News Service ^ | Feb. 11, 2004 | JAMES LILEKS

Posted on 02/18/2004 12:34:26 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez

Let's just be blunt: The North Koreans would love to see John Kerry win the election. The mullahs of Iran would love it. The Syrian Ba'athists would sigh with relief. Every enemy of America would take great satisfaction if the electorate rejects the Bush doctrine and scuttles back to hide under the U.N. Security Council's table. It's a hard question, but the right one: Which candidate does our enemy want to lose? George W. Bush.

And some conservatives will be happy to help, it seems.

Woe and gloom have befallen some on the right. Bush has failed to act according to The Reagan Ideal.

The actual Reagan may have issued an amnesty for illegals, but the Ideal Reagan would have done no such thing. So unless Bush packs freight cars full of gardeners and dishwashers and dumps them off at the Mexican border, some voters will just sit this one out.

The Ideal Reagan would have eliminated the National Endowment for the Arts; the actual Reagan proposed a $1 million increase in his final budget. But Bush increased NEA funding -- perhaps an attempt to placate people who wouldn't vote for him if he showed up in performance with Karen Finley and a can of Hershey's syrup. So angry conservatives might just sit this one out.

And if a Democrat takes office, and the Michael Moores and Rob Reiners and Martin Sheens crowd the airwaves on Nov. 3 to shout their howls of vindication? If the inevitable renaissance of Iraq happens on Kerry's watch, and the economy truly picks up steam in the first few years before the business cycle and Kerry's tax hikes kick in? If emboldened Islamist terrorists smell blood and strike again? Fine. Maybe the next Republican president will do everything they want.

Oh, sure, Bush is fine on the foreign affairs stuff, and yes, there's a partial-birth abortion law, and the tax cuts were nice, and come to think of it, Sept. 11 wasn't followed by blow after blow after blow, for some reason. The nation endures, at least at press time. But that's hardly enough. Where's that bill requiring 60-foot Ten Commandments monuments in every capitol rotunda? Let Kerry win. Teach the GOP a lesson, it will.

So both sides have elements that seem unserious about the defining issue of the day: the war. But the right's malcontents snipe from humid redoubts of Internet message boards. The left's biggest spokesmen are parading their delusions.

No less than Al Gore has practically accused the president of treason. In a Feb. 8 speech in Tennessee, Gore went on an alarming rant, performed almost in an arr-matey pirate voice. "He betrayed this country!" Gore bellowed. "He played on our fears. He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure dangerous to our troops, an adventure preordained and planned before 9/11 ever took place."

We've been manipulated into a state of fear, Gore shouted. Really. Which administration spent most of 1998 warning us about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, only to launch some missiles and walk away? Gore saw all the intel on WMDs. Gore was part of an administration that pushed for regime change because it viewed Saddam, correctly, as a danger to the region and to America. Does Gore think we don't remember everything Democrats said about Saddam and WMDs, when they felt responsible for the nation?

As for that state of fear, well, anyone out there feel afraid of Saddam today? Didn't think so.

Gore should give this speech at the convention. Why not? Why not stand up and give vent to all the poisons hatching in the muck? Why not tell America that Bush lied about everything, that he took the country to war for reasons he knew would be discredited, just so Halliburton could make another buck or two? It's what they seem to believe, after all. The delusions of their fringe have become articles of faith for the mainstream. Bush was AWOL! Bush knew! Bush lied! Bush never flosses! Skull and Bones! Plastic turkey!

At least we'll have a clear choice in November. Bush is serious about the war. The Democrats are serious about the war against Bush


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2004; alqaedavote; bush; election; gwb2004; kerry; nationalsecurity; northkorea; owk; owkmeansonewithkerry; pagingsaberbaby; whereareusaber
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BUSH/CHENEY 2004

BECAUSE UNLESS THE WORLD IS MADE SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY,
DEMOCRACY WILL NOT BE SAFE IN THE WORLD.


1 posted on 02/18/2004 12:34:29 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez
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To: William Wallace
Great find!
2 posted on 02/18/2004 12:37:14 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez (Unless the world is made safe for Democracy, Democracy won't be safe in the world.)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
BTTT, and thanks for NOT excerpting Lileks.
3 posted on 02/18/2004 12:40:44 PM PST by Constitution Day (NLC™)
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To: PhiKapMom
Luis posted the article I told you about!
4 posted on 02/18/2004 12:42:25 PM PST by axel f
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To: Jim Robinson; afraidfortherepublic; JohnHuang2; Budge; A Citizen Reporter; Polybius; DeSoto; ...

5 posted on 02/18/2004 12:43:03 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez (Unless the world is made safe for Democracy, Democracy won't be safe in the world.)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
Good post - he hit on most of my fears about the supposed Republicans that sound like whiney Dims when they cry about the things they don't like and want to throw a fit to "teach him a lesson". What total disgusting twits.
6 posted on 02/18/2004 12:44:30 PM PST by trebb (Ain't God good . . .)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
Already posted here.
7 posted on 02/18/2004 12:44:49 PM PST by Sloth (We cannot defeat foreign enemies of the Constitution if we yield to the domestic ones.)
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To: Sloth
Which highlights the need to use the actual titles of articles when posting them.
8 posted on 02/18/2004 12:46:04 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez (Unless the world is made safe for Democracy, Democracy won't be safe in the world.)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
That's great!
9 posted on 02/18/2004 12:48:02 PM PST by aShepard
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To: Luis Gonzalez
True, though in this case the fault lies w/ the Time-Picayune instead of a FReeper.
10 posted on 02/18/2004 12:48:21 PM PST by Sloth (We cannot defeat foreign enemies of the Constitution if we yield to the domestic ones.)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
But the right's malcontents snipe from humid redoubts of Internet message boards.

In fairness, some malcontents have pretty nifty icons.

11 posted on 02/18/2004 12:51:06 PM PST by William Wallace (Darkdrake Lives!)
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To: Constitution Day
George W. Bush cannot be all things to all men, but he can fill a large measure of what a majority of voters want. Part of the problem is that the assortment of wants and needs varies from person to person, and one size cannot fit all. But Bush can only offer a limited range of sizes, without running into limitations of contradictions and inconsistencies. So long as the Democrats do not actually deliver any of the promises they make, they may promise the moon over and over, to diverse constituencies. The astonishment here should be directed at those constituencies that have been disappointed again and again, still casting their affections and votes for the Democrats, who cannot deliver on their dreams. Perhaps they just have the wrong dreams.
12 posted on 02/18/2004 12:52:38 PM PST by alloysteel
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To: Sloth
Yes, but was it there before and are we logged in? ;-)
13 posted on 02/18/2004 12:54:58 PM PST by William Wallace (Darkdrake Lives!)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
Osama says, "Vote for Kerry".

Of course, all these people really want to be our friends, and only President Bush is standing in the way of an international love fest.

The fact that Bin Laden says he wants to destroy America, and attacks us, repeatedly, is just his idea of a friendly joke. Don't know why the president got so snippy about it. The French weren't upset at all, and they're so much more worldly than we are. It's not like the killers wanted to wear headscarves to public school. Now that would have been serious.
14 posted on 02/18/2004 12:56:33 PM PST by stop_fascism
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To: Luis Gonzalez
BUMP
15 posted on 02/18/2004 1:01:37 PM PST by nuconvert ("Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.")
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To: trebb
Thank God somebody on these boards understands.

The so called conservative GWB haters piss me off like no other.

W is a hero of Churchillian perportions, and nobody is ever gonna convince me otherwise, because it is a fact.
16 posted on 02/18/2004 1:05:14 PM PST by zbigreddogz
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To: Luis Gonzalez
While some parts of his domestic record are questionable to me, this article sums up EXACTLY why I am voting for Bush.
17 posted on 02/18/2004 1:05:32 PM PST by GiveEmDubya
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To: Luis Gonzalez

Question:What do these people all have in common?

Answer: They want Bush to lose.

Do you?


18 posted on 02/18/2004 1:08:51 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez (Unless the world is made safe for Democracy, Democracy won't be safe in the world.)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
A great read, especially for the 'let the chips fall as they may- stay at home' crowd.
19 posted on 02/18/2004 1:08:52 PM PST by rintense
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To: William Wallace
Cut it out, he was being series!
20 posted on 02/18/2004 1:11:21 PM PST by Luis Gonzalez (Unless the world is made safe for Democracy, Democracy won't be safe in the world.)
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