[NJ_gent]

"He RAN on education reform, not elimination of the Dept of Ed."

Reform for a Republican candidate should never amount to massively increasing the size and scope of Federal involvement in education. The Federal government doesn't even have a constitutional leg to stand on when it comes to education.

"he RAN on prescription drugs for seniors."

Had he been conservative in most other areas, we would have tolerated a minor increase in this one particular program. However, I don't see the President fighting for cuts anywhere else in the Federal social welfare program. Instead, I see him pushing a $500 - $700 billion pill bill under the guise that it'd actually cost something like $350 billion. That's not the least bit conservative, and it wasn't what I voted for in 2000.

You forgot to mention nation building (see: Afghanistan, see: Iraq) and national security (specifically border security).

"If you are against the war, too bad. Support the troops and the mission now that it is under way. Or do you believe the NY times that its a quagmire?"

Against the war to oust Saddam? The only thing I was against was the timing. We had (and still do have) a far more serious threat looming in the name of North Korea. North Korea does have nuclear weapons, is developing the means to deliver them to the continental United States, and has threatened many times to do just that. Instead of dealing with that threat, we dealt with a far less serious threat. Might Saddam have sold some chemical or biological weapons to a foreign power or even terrorists? Sure. Can North Korea do the same thing (including nuclear weapons) right now? Yes. And North Korea already has an underground business selling weapons and weapons technologies to our enemies in Iran, Iraq (before the invasion), Syria, and other places. North Korea is arming the people we're fighting, and they're working on mass-producing nuclear weapons. Gee, I wonder who I'd go after first...

My second problem revolves around this whole nation building thing we're doing. The President specifically said he would NOT, if elected, NOT engage in the ridiculously wasteful and stupid exercise of building entire countries. What are we doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? Building countries. What are they doing in Afghanistan? Trying to hang people who convert to Christianity. Hey, maybe we'll nation-build them some electric chairs so they can fry Christians instead of hanging them...

We're not building allies, we're not making friends, and we're not doing anything other than dumping tens and hundreds of billions of dollars into building stuff for people who don't give a damn and either already hate us or will end up hating us in a few years. Let's build our Israeli-style security fence across our southern border, boot out our illegals, provide real, serious, comprehensive border, coast, and port security, and get serious about national security. If a nation becomes a serious and imminent threat to us, then absolutely deal with them in any way necessary, including militarily. But don't then step in and rebuild their entire country better than new when you're done. I can only imagine how Osama and friends are laughing at us right now, as we sink ourselves and our grandchidren deeper into debt in some feeble attempt to placate people who hold some irrational hatred for us after we've bombed their country/government to dust.

[pissant]

Suffice to say I completely disagree with your view of national security. We will have a long time presence in the ME becasue the ME needed to be changed. And your right about NoKo. It has Nukes. And therefore sacrificing Seoul to invade them was not a viable option.

And waiting for Saddam and Iran to get Nukes is crazy. Best to fight this battle now. And Iraq WILL be a long term ally. Unless you believe the NY times version of things.

Afghanistan has been going better than anyone expected in such a short period of time. Had we just crushed the taliban and left, the Iranians or some other pestilence would have filled the void. Are there parts of the country that are not fully up to speed...sure. But the Afghan army is being trained and they are wiping the remnants of taliban up very well, with our help.

An Iran is next.

[Badray]

That was marvelous.

The only thing that I disagree with is the bit about N. Korea. He may have nukes, but he knows that he can get more by rattling his sabre than he would ever get by trying to initiate force anywhere.

The only thing that I agree with Jorge on is taking the fight to the enemy after years of us not smacking the enemy when they raised their ugly heads.