My Turn ( A Christian View Point on Everyday Issues and News)

All Things to all People

We are in the final lap of the sprint to the white house and I cannot but look at the campaigns that both candidates have run. Yes I am a Bush supporter and I do support him for a lot of reasons, but the main reason I support Bush is because he is steadfast and resolute. He does not try to be all things to all people, neither does he try to please people at the expense of what he knows to be the truth. In a nutshell, he says what he means and means what he says.

I remember when the issue of gay marriage came up in 2000, I believe a reporter had asked him about the issue of gay marriage, I remember him saying "I believe marriage is between a man and woman, period. This is my belief and if it costs me the election, then so be it". I remember the last phrase very well ".....if it cost me the election, so be it". Those words told me volumes about him.

This is the year 2004 and George Bush in the incumbent and John Kerry is the challenger and the contrast could not be clearer. John Kerry tries to appease everyone. He has no deep convictions. In my opinion, he will say and do anything that will make him popular and liked. When the John Kerry first came on the scene, like most Americans, I did not know much about him. So when the Bush campaign defined him as a flip flopper, I honestly thought it was just campaign rhetoric, that such a label would probably not stick, but I was wrong, John kerry himself proved me wrong.

When he first uttered the now famous "....I actually did vote for $87b before I voted against it.....", I thought I heard him incorrectly. He first voted to authorize the use of force against Saddam, then went on to say he was mis-led when the war became unpopular. He claimed he voted to give the President the authority to use force, but the president "rushed" to war. He faulted the President for failing to find WMD in Iraq and the war was a mistake. He later told a reporter that knowing all he knows today, he would have still voted to go to war against Saddam. If this does not confuse anyone, nothing else will.

He criticizes the President's open display of his Christian faith saying he will not display his faith in public because he does not want to impose his religious views on anyone else. When he found out he was loosing support among Christians especially black evangelicals, he starts to quote scripture and never failed to remind us during the debates that he is Catholic and once served as an altar boy. He even quotes more scripture than Bush. So much for not wanting to display my religion in public.

I know that people tend to change their minds on certain issues, that is not what I am talking about here. What I am talking about in regards to Senator Kerry is that he allows opinion polls to decide what he will say, how he will act and what decisions he will make. While there may be benefits to trying to feel the pulse of the people before making certain decisions, the dangers of making decisions just because they are popular or will make you look good and liked far out weighs the benefits. If nothing else, 9/11 and the events that have followed have taught us that the right decisions are usually not the most popular decisions. In spite of the first WTC attacks, the embassy bombings and the attack on the USS Cole, former President Clinton did not go after Osama Bin Laden as aggressively as he should have, not because he did not love this country, but because he was more concerned about his image before the international community. If he had done the right thing instead of trying so hard to be liked, we may not have had a 9/11.

The primary job of the President is the protection of the homeland and the people, it is not a popularity contest. If you want a President you can depend on and trust to defend and protect you and your family no matter what it takes, then George W Bush is your man.

posted by elizabeth @ 1:22 AM