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have the world gone mad?!
World 'wants Kerry as president'


This is one area in which most or the world's ignorance about US politics matches US ignorance about foreign politics.

Most foreigners view this as Kerry vs. Bush, or maybe a Yes-or-No referendum on Bush. That's not the way it works of course: most people are voting for the liberals or conservatives. Kerry would win easily if he could make it Kerry vs. Bush but right now it's that damn anti-war liberal from Massachusetts vs. that shifty conservative nobody can figure out. The shift to the Republican party has been so huge in the last 30 years that many people are prepared to take the devil they know over the one they don't.

The foreigners also don't realize how poor a candidate Kerry really is. One year ago if asked to design the worst possible Democratic candidate for president I would have said a liberal congressman (with voting record) from Massachusetts who had an anti-war history, had been in the military and had some questionable history in his service record. That describes John Kerry perfectly.

(my ideal candidate would be a Southern Democrat with a solid pro-military voting record - Sam Nunn would be the ultimate candidate to defeat Bush)

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Four more years of record deficits.

Four more years of tax cuts for the rich!

Four more years of record unemployment figures.


The deficits are the best place for Democrats to attack swing voters tempted to switch to Democrats ... except that the Democratic candidate is a liberal from Massachusetts. Even so Kerry ought to pound this issue harder than anything else. This is a clear and unequivocal problem for Bush even amongst supporters on Iraq, and it is a way for Kerry to shed the damn-liberal image (which is the key to winning the election - he'll win if he isn't seen as a liberal).

The "tax cuts for the rich" is largely a red herring. If anything the "rich" pay an even larger percentage of the budget than before. The real change over the last 15 years, and one that I think needs fixing, is the massive shift from corporate taxes to dependence on individual taxes.

Clinton averaged 5.2% unemployment over his term, Bush 5.5%. Neither number is even remotely a record: is only a little over the "natural unemployment" level of somewhere around 5%. Unemployment isn't "high" until you get past 7%. There are still people who can remember 30% unemployment so be careful of the word "record".

(natural unemployment is the level below which wage inflation takes off)

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Gasoline is still $2.00 a gallon!?! Thank you King George


That has nothing to do with Bush or Iraq. It's all about China, and limited processing capacity in most the US. It would be $2 a gallon even with Gore.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock