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Why I will vote for John Kerry for President (Sad deterioration of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Son)
the union leader Sunday news ^ | September 28, 2004 | JOHN EISENHOWER

Posted on 09/29/2004 5:17:50 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn

THE Presidential election to be held this coming Nov. 2 will be one of extraordinary importance to the future of our nation. The outcome will determine whether this country will continue on the same path it has followed for the last 3?years or whether it will return to a set of core domestic and foreign policy values that have been at the heart of what has made this country great.

Now more than ever, we voters will have to make cool judgments, unencumbered by habits of the past. Experts tell us that we tend to vote as our parents did or as we always have. We remained loyal to party labels. We cannot afford that luxury in the election of 2004. There are times when we must break with the past, and I believe this is one of them.

As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.

The fact is that today Republican? Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar. To me, the word Republican has always been synonymous with the word Responsibility, which has meant limiting our governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms. Today whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not meet that criterion.

Responsibility used to be observed in foreign affairs. That has meant respect for others. America, though recognized as the leader of the community of nations, has always acted as a part of it, not as a maverick separate from that community and at times insulting towards it. Leadership involves setting a direction and building consensus, not viewing other countries as practically devoid of significance. Recent developments indicate that the current Republican Party leadership has confused confident leadership with hubris and arrogance.

In the Middle East crisis of 1991, President George H.W. Bush marshaled world opinion through the United Nations before employing military force to free Kuwait from Saddam Hussein. Through negotiation he arranged for the action to be financed by all the industrialized nations, not just the United States. When Kuwait had been freed, President George H. W. Bush stayed within the United Nations mandate, aware of the dangers of occupying an entire nation.

Today many people are rightly concerned about our precious individual freedoms, our privacy, the basis of our democracy. Of course we must fight terrorism, but have we irresponsibly gone overboard in doing so? I wonder. In 1960, President Eisenhower told the Republican convention, if ever we put any other value above (our) liberty, and above principle, we shall lose both. I would appreciate hearing such warnings from the Republican Party of today.

The Republican Party I used to know placed heavy emphasis on fiscal responsibility, which included balancing the budget whenever the state of the economy allowed it to do so. The Eisenhower administration accomplished that difficult task three times during its eight years in office. It did not attain that remarkable achievement by cutting taxes for the rich. Republicans disliked taxes, of course, but the party accepted them as a necessary means of keep the nation financial structure sound.

The Republicans used to be deeply concerned for the middle class and small business. Today Republican leadership, while not solely accountable for the loss of American jobs, encourages it with its tax code and heads us in the direction of a society of very rich and very poor.

Sen. Kerry, in whom I am willing to place my trust, has demonstrated that he is courageous, sober, competent, and concerned with fighting the dangers associated with the widening socio-economic gap in this country. I will vote for him enthusiastically.

I celebrate, along with other Americans, the diversity of opinion in this country. But let it be based on careful thought. I urge everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, to avoid voting for a ticket merely because it carries the label of the party of one parents or of our own ingrained habits.


John Eisenhower, son of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, served on the White House staff between October 1958 and the end of the Eisenhower administration. From 1961 to 1964 he assisted his father in writing ø—he White House Years, his Presidential memoirs. He served as American ambassador to Belgium between 1969 and 1971. He is the author of nine books, largely on military subjects.


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: eisenhower; endorsements; johneisenhower; kerry
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This does bother me. He doesn't make a good case so I am just wondering what happened to him? Or if he has always been this way?

Thanks...

1 posted on 09/29/2004 5:17:50 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn
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To: Steve Van Doorn

Already posted.


2 posted on 09/29/2004 5:19:16 PM PDT by Max Combined (I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine...)
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To: Steve Van Doorn

Never heard of John Eisenhower. Don't care who he votes for.


3 posted on 09/29/2004 5:19:38 PM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all)
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To: Steve Van Doorn

arrrrgh! Whats up with Great Republican Presidents sons lately!


4 posted on 09/29/2004 5:19:46 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: Steve Van Doorn

5 posted on 09/29/2004 5:20:22 PM PDT by 45Auto (Big holes are (almost) always better.)
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To: Steve Van Doorn

I'd be happy to trade Zell Miller for John Eisenhower and a RINO to be named later.


6 posted on 09/29/2004 5:20:38 PM PDT by ambrose (http://www.swiftvets.com)
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To: Steve Van Doorn

My parents always told me to never tell anyone who I voted for that it was no ones business -


7 posted on 09/29/2004 5:20:43 PM PDT by finallyatexan
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To: Steve Van Doorn

someone please pull Mr Eisenhower's forehead up out of his

pureed prunes.........thanks


8 posted on 09/29/2004 5:20:43 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: Steve Van Doorn

His position should be valued as much as Amy Carter's i.e. bumpkiss.


9 posted on 09/29/2004 5:20:53 PM PDT by KantianBurke (Am back but just for a short while)
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To: Steve Van Doorn
I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.

I wonder how long Eisenhower has had a drinking problem.

10 posted on 09/29/2004 5:21:14 PM PDT by F16Fighter
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To: Max Combined

I couldn't find it could you link please?


11 posted on 09/29/2004 5:23:00 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn
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To: F16Fighter

its sad to take advantage of an old man losing his mind


12 posted on 09/29/2004 5:23:00 PM PDT by CT CONSERVATIVE (NOT FAIR-That's Dan's Story to Break!!!)
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To: Steve Van Doorn
"Now more than ever, we voters will have to make cool judgments, unencumbered by habits of the past." So I, Dwight Eisenhower's son will now turn around and urge you to vote a vote clearly encumbered by habits mired in an an isolationist, appeasement minded past. America must retreat from the world. We must hide! We cannot fight the evil doers. We must hide from them in Fortress America! RUN! HIDE! Truly a sad, debased son of a proud noble father. How his father's spirit must be weeping at this.
13 posted on 09/29/2004 5:23:05 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (Vote Bush 2004-We have the solutions, Kerry Democrats? Nothing but slogans)
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To: Steve Van Doorn

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1229031/posts

Why I will vote for John Kerry for President
Manchester Union Leader ^ | September 28, 2004 | John Eisenhower


Posted on 09/28/2004 5:56:12 AM CDT by billorites


14 posted on 09/29/2004 5:23:13 PM PDT by MEG33 (John Kerry has been AWOL on issues of national security for two decades)
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To: Steve Van Doorn

Who is John Eisenhower?


15 posted on 09/29/2004 5:23:30 PM PDT by GreatOne (You will bow down before me, son of Jor-el!)
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To: Steve Van Doorn

Memo to Ike's son:

Your Dad helped save the world, you're an ass, and you're tarnishing the family name.


16 posted on 09/29/2004 5:23:36 PM PDT by Minus_The_Bear
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To: F16Fighter
He could have said it all in one sentence, to wit:

I'm voting for Kerry because I'm A Rockefeller RINO invertebrate.

17 posted on 09/29/2004 5:24:47 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (Ask not what you can do for your country, ask the country what it will do for you!)
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To: CT CONSERVATIVE
"its sad to take advantage of an old man losing his mind"

That is what I am thinking what happened to this man.

18 posted on 09/29/2004 5:25:19 PM PDT by Steve Van Doorn
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To: Steve Van Doorn
Senility I guess.
19 posted on 09/29/2004 5:25:25 PM PDT by Fast1 (Mullah Kerry for an Islamic America..)
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To: Steve Van Doorn
He served as American ambassador to Belgium between 1969 and 1971

Must have caught something.

20 posted on 09/29/2004 5:25:26 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
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