Kerry's Out Of The Mainstream? Bush Out Of His Mind?

This writer has his share of criticism of John Kerry and what's left of the once venerable Democratic Party. But, there's no denying that last night he proved once again to be the more intelligent, cogent, coherent and competent candidate. Ask yourself honestly, who would you rather have handing potentially explosive issues like relations with Iran and North Korea over the next 4 years? Is re-electing Bush worth risking war with one or both of these countries? Is it worth re-enactment of the draft? Worth risking 10's of thousands of lives on all sides?

How bout that first question? Bob Schieffer, who looks like he was around for Pearl Harbor asked if "our children will ever live in a world as safe and secure as we did." Excuse me Bob, didn't you live through three major wars that cost 100's of thousands of American lives and millions on the other sides? When I was a kid, way back in the 1970's, we used to have "air raid drills" in elementary school. The fear of an all out nuclear exchange between the U.S. and Soviet Union, ever stoked by our politicians, was all too real.

Bush said that we were going after the terrorists wherever they are being harbored. How about in Saudi Arabia? A recent episode of PBS's Wide Angle http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/saudi/briefing.html documents how those disaffected with the incompetence of the royal family are increasingly turning to radical Islam. Al-Queda is apparently alive and well in the kingdom even receiving quiet cooperation from the conservative religious establishment. I haven't heard either Bush or Kerry even broach the subject during this campaign.

Bush alleged that Kerry was on the extreme "left bank" of the mainstream. If that's so, where exactly would Bush place himself? He has frightened and bullied this country into a totally unecessary war that has lost us over 1,000 young lives, maimed thousands more and cost billions that might have been spent, at least in theory, on improving health care, transportation, housing and environmental protection for all. He has run up the largest federal deficit in U.S. history and made us dangerously dependent on foreign creditors like China, whose own economy has been subject to severe instability from time to time. He has closed off access to public records from both his and previous presidential administrations. His E.P.A has failed to give local communities vital warnings about contaminants in their water and air.

Do the words dangerous, radical or unhinged come to mind? One of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone is the one where a child played by Billy Mumy acquires omnipotent power and destroys most of the world in the process. The climax occurs when one of the surviving adults implores the others to pick up something heavy, take it to the child's head and "end this now."

Now, I'm not asking you to do anything even remotely that extreme. All you have to do on November 2 is pull a lever, touch a glass screen or pop a neatly folded ballot into a box.