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Posted on 04/11/2003 10:36:18 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
4/11/2003
Why I Support the Reelection of President George W. Bush
By Thomas C. Hoefling
My support for the President in 2004 is unequivocal. I will explain exactly why in a moment.
Before I do that, a bit of history. I first met George W. Bush at a campaign stop in my home state of Iowa in 1999. It was a brief encounter, but quite educational. Although I was not supporting any candidate at that point in time, I found him to be an extremely engaging man; a great listener, and someone who struck me as being both earnest and honest. I liked him immediately. And, contrary to the juvenile attacks he has endured from the Left, he proved to be very sharp—highly intelligent. Not a bad first impression for a candidate to make.
Ultimately, I ended up supporting someone else in the 2000 Republican primary; serving as National Political Director for Dr. Alan Keyes until the Philadelphia convention. It was a decision I have no regrets about—Mr. Keyes’ message had a very positive net effect on the country and on the GOP.
But that position of responsibility put me in close proximity to the entire 2000 campaign from beginning to end. Throughout, whenever I had reason to do business with the Bush campaign, which was on many occasions, I found a group of people who acted with great professionalism, tact and decency. I saw an organization that ran like a finely tuned machine—but one with a heart.
In other words, the Bush campaign was an organization that was being run by an excellent CEO—a man who had the wisdom to surround himself with subordinates who were of the highest caliber. Again, I was very impressed, since we were going through the process as a nation of choosing the most powerful of executives.
The fall campaign against Al Gore is a story unto itself, one I won’t indulge myself by retelling in its entirety now. There were times when I disagreed with our nominee on certain issues. There were times when I thought the campaign had shortcomings. But we all fought hard, we all worked hard, and we ultimately succeeded, thank God.
Lots of folks, including the President himself, I believe, got a real education about our opponents during the Florida recount debacle. More than ever before, the Democrats showed themselves to be willing to do anything to win. The Clinton machine, in all its corrupt glory, pulled out every stop to try and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Seemingly endless unfair and corrupt recounts, an army of lawyers, partisan courts, and suppressed military ballots—you know the story. Al Gore and his minions selfishly created the closest thing to a constitutional crisis you or I are ever likely to see in our lifetime.
In what will forever be known as the infamous Sore/Loserman campaign, Gore showed himself to be a manifestly petty man who cared more for his own self-interest than he did the interests of the country.
Meanwhile, George W. Bush acted presidential. He showed himself to be serious, gracious, decent and responsible. He endured the Gore attempt to steal the election, and he did it in a way that spoke well of the quality of his character.
What a refreshing change after 8 years of the Clinton frat boy ‘Animal House’! Finally, after the final paroxysm of Clinton pardons-for-cash and the looting of the White House furniture and furnishings, we once again had adults in charge of the ship of state.
Certainly, I didn’t agree with every appointment, or every decision taken in those early days. But overall and overwhelmingly, the new President revealed his great talents as a leader.
He demonstrated the most important attributes of a successful executive at any level: He has vision. He knows what he wants. He knows how to spot the best talent and how to recruit that talent for his team. Then, most importantly, once he has them onboard and has empowered them, he knows enough to let them do their job without undue interference or micromanagement.
If there has ever been a better qualified, more talented or capable group of people running the Executive Branch of our government, I don’t know about it.
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Then came the day everything changed—September 11th, 2001. The whole world shook when those jets slammed into the Trade Towers, the Pentagon and that field in Pennsylvania.
Who can forget the look on the President’s face when Chief-of Staff Andy Card leaned over in that classroom and told him what had happened? It was a defining moment for America and the world, yes—but it was also the supreme moment of truth for George W. Bush.
How did he respond? Superbly. The fire of trial didn’t consume him, as it would some. It merely showed the fine quality of the metal he is made of.
He prayed. He demonstrated his faith in the One Who has the power both to raise up and put down nations. He had the understanding to recognize his need for the prayers of his fellow citizens, and the humility to ask for those prayers.
He reassured America in words worthy of history, and worthy of his office. And he did it with sincerity—with a power and a heartfelt passion that rang true to the American people.
He comforted the stricken. He honored the first responders—those heroes who went up the stairs on that day when everyone else was trying to go down. He encouraged those they left behind—the ones who now faced the task of putting their stricken cities and broken lives back together again.
Most importantly, he fully recognized his primary duty as the Commander-in-Chief—to protect the lives and the liberty of the American people. He immediately began to take concrete steps to greatly strengthen our national security and preparedness.
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It was soon evident who had perpetrated the cowardly attacks. Radical Islamists of Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qada organization, operating out of their bases in Afghanistan, were identified as having carried them out.
Having watched politicians and diplomats my whole life, what followed was remarkable to me. The President didn’t equivocate. He had no weasel words. He made a decision that America was not going to tolerate terrorists or terrorism, or those who support them or it. He set his mind and his heart to go after these animals with all of the force and the power of the United States of America.
George W. Bush, in spite of vicious opposition from Leftists of every stripe in this country and abroad, has been resolute. He has not wavered. He has stuck by his determination to not give the terrorists any chance to catch their breath or to regroup—no opportunity to carry out their desire to bring additional harm to more innocent men, women and children.
He has energized and inspired the men and women of our Armed Forces—the greatest troops that have ever served this or any other nation. They truly respect and love this man—many of them have told me that repeatedly. (Besides, it’s obvious just looking at their demeanor.)
Together, they smashed Al Quada in Afghanistan, along with the Taliban tyrants that gave them refuge. While the defeatists cried about how the country would become a ‘quagmire’ for us as it had been for the Soviets, speeding their demise, our forces secured the country in weeks—with minimal loss of life. Any terrorists still operating in the mountains of Afghanistan now plot their evil with minimal support, and from caves.
Together, they have now smashed the murderous regime in Baghdad, in the greatest military operation the world has ever seen. They have made us proud. The Iraqi people are beside themselves with joy at their newfound liberty. I guarantee that if they had a chance today to vote for President of the United States, they would elect George W. Bush in a landslide.
But we still live in perilous times. Rogue regimes with weapons of mass destruction still exist in a number of places in the world. Terrorists, radical Islamists and communists still exist in great numbers—and don’t kid yourself—they hate us as much or more than they ever did. But that is why I consider it critical to our nation’s and the world’s future that this man who understands these problems, and who has demonstrated that he is willing and capable of dealing with them, remain in the Oval Office through 2008. That is the primary reason I am already doing everything in my power to help see to it that George W. Bush keeps his job next year.
The Democrats have behaved beyond disgracefully in past months. They have equivocated and stalled on critical national security issues. They have pandered to the most extreme elements of their electoral base to such an extreme that they have in effect given aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein. I don’t make such an accusation lightly, but it is simply a cold hard fact.
They have marched in the streets under the banners of the World Worker’s Party—communists. They have stood by without a word as these ‘protestors’ have expressed the hope that as many of our young men and women as possible die in battle.
Democratic Congressmen traveled to Saddam’s Baghdad and used that platform to launch attacks on the President. Frankly, they sounded like the Iraqi Information Minister. Another of their delegation went to a schoolroom in the Northwest and talked to the kids about how Osama Bin Laden was like George Washington.
On the eve of the war, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle launched a vicious attack on the administration. Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has not let up throughout in her harsh criticism. Once upon a time politics in America stopped at the waters edge for both parties, but that is now but a memory because of their crude partisanship.
Among others, Charlie Rangel, Louis Farakhan, John Kerry and various Hollywood celebrities-turned-political scientists have called for ‘regime change’ in Washington, comparing President Bush to Saddam Hussein. Their hatred for the President, and their angst at being out of power, has caused them to lose any semblance of proportion or propriety.
Instead of having a single idea to make the country better or more secure, they have settled into incessant carping, complaining, criticism and obstructionism.
If they don’t like the rules, they ignore them. For the first time in history, they are unconstitutionally using the filibuster power in the U.S. Senate to block every Bush judicial nominee that comes to the floor. Why? Because the nominees aren’t qualified to sit on the Federal Bench? No. It’s only because the nominees won’t give them a blood oath to support abortion-on-demand in each and every circumstance.
The Democratic Party has become an out-of-touch, socialist, anti-American dinosaur that is not fit to live in this new world or in this new century. Let’s put it out of its misery in 2004. Please.
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We have problems that must be dealt with at home. The economy has cracks—most of them the result of 9-11, turmoil abroad, or the natural outcome of eight years of ruinous Clinton policies. But whatever the source of these difficulties, they can easily be mitigated over the long haul by a firm and steady hand on the helm.
The U.S. economy is a huge ship with a fairly small rudder. Generally speaking, it takes years before the policies of any one President or Congress have much visible effect. The 90’s prosperity was the Reagan economy. The current rough spot we are going through is the beginning of the Clinton economy—the fiscal ‘Clinton Legacy’.
But President Bush, through his policies of cutting taxes, reforming taxation and reshaping government needs time and more votes in Congress to carry out the rest of his agenda—an agenda that takes the long-term view. Building long-term growth requires leadership with a long-term vision. Bush has it in spades. Unlike most all Democrats these days, he understands that government never creates wealth—it only confiscates and spends it.
We must not allow the Democrats to stampede the electorate into believing their lying rhetoric about the economy as they did in 1992. We must stand united against the Democrats, lest they have any opportunity to squander our economic or our physical security.
If we can successfully do that, we will reap the positive economic results in the next 10, 20 and 30 years.
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With all my heart, I want every Democrat lie and distortion to be met with a furious blitz of rebuttal and refutation between now and the election.
I want every single liberal media distortion to be met with a firestorm of public outrage.
I want to see the Democrats and their deceptions opposed boldly in every legislature in the land, in every newspaper, on every radio show, on the Web, in every coffee shop, in every workplace, in every church and around every kitchen table.
I want to see every precinct in this country organized for Republicans in 2004 like it has never been organized before.
I want to see every possible step taken to prevent any further Democrat voter fraud anywhere from taking place.
I want to see the greatest crop of conservative candidates this country has ever seen on the ballot next year—fully funded, well prepared and well equipped for the battle.
I want every liberal in the country for every office from dogcatcher to the Presidency to suffer crushing defeat—the kind of defeat they can never recover from.
I for one am taking drastic positive steps to make it so. How about you?
Our posterity will thank us.
EV
aka Tom Hoefling - President - The American Life and Liberty Coalition
LifeandLiberty04@aol.com
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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You have hit the nail on the head. But people will vote if they are better off economically and safer than they were '4 years ago'. If not, they will vote for the 'alternative, whomever it may be'.
Yours is so much pithier than mine! ;-)
Huh. Whod'a thunk?
Yeah, electing a Democrat would be so much better. Then we'd really be secure. < /sarcasm >
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