U2Kitten said:
Okay Bush and Kerry and Nader supporters, here's your chance. Tell us why you support your candidate, why you are against the other guy, and why your choice would be the best thing for America. Go on, we're listening!
1. I support Bush because I support his policies on Defense, Foreign Policy, Most International Trade issues, and most economic issues including at least half of the tax cuts.
a. On Defense, the Bush administration has reversed the decline in defense spending from the 1990s and is doing more to help modernize the military than anything done in the prior 8 years. The Bush administration has instituted the largest overall pay increase for military personal in 20 years! Doing these things are vital to keeping the US military the best in the world and will help to reduce casualties in future conflicts. Military forces that are better trained and equiped suffer smaller casualties than Military forces not as well trained and equiped. Better trained and equiped military forces are able to accomplish objectives quicker and resolve conflicts and other problems quicker than military forces that have less training and worse equipment. The Bush administration has shown that it is willing to provide the military with the funds necessary to have the best equiped and well trained force possible.
b. On Foreign Policy, the Bush administration has taken several major steps to improve national and global security. No other President in history has done more to combat terrorism worldwide than George Bush.
1. The Bush administration successfully responded to 9/11 by removing the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. NATO is currently involved in rebuilding and hunting down remaining terrorist in Afghanistan. All across the world, the Bush administration has helped lead the effort to track down members of Al Quada where ever they may be. Thousands of them have been captured or killed with the help of a wide variety of countries. No other administration has been as successful as the Bush administration in tracking down, capturing and killing terrorist worldwide. No other leader in history has helped give Afghanistan a better chance at attaining democracy and prosperity than the Bush administration.
2. The Bush administration successfuly removed Saddam's regime from power when Saddam failed to verifiably disarm of all WMD per multiple UN resolutions and the 1991 Gulf War Ceacefire agreement. By removing Saddam, the Bush Administration removed the largest threat to global energy supply, the global economy, and global security. Iraq now has the best opportunity in its history to develop a democratic and prosperous country. It is free from the Brutality of Saddam's regime that murdered 1.7 million people in Iraq, and countries in the region and around the world. In addition, resolutions passed under Chapter VII rules of the United Nations have finally been enforced as they should have been earlier. Resolutions passed under Chapter VII rules are the most serious of resolutions and authorize the use of military force in order to bring about compliance. These actions have strenthened international security and the importance and meaning of the UN resolutions. The opposite would have been the case if Saddam had remained in power.
c. On international trade and the economy, the Bush administration has worked hard to get the US economy out of a recession that started at the end of the Clinton administration. Most of the Bush tax cuts have helped in this process. Unemployment has been reduced from 6.4% to 5.6%. The economy continues to grow at an average rate of 4.5% compared to growth in Europe which a mere .4% on average. The Unemployment rate is one of the 6 lowest recorded umemployment rates in the past 30 years! It is now projected that unemployment will fall to around 5.2% by election day. The Bush tax cuts and low interest rates have been important in bringing about this improving economic situation in the country. For the most part, the Bush administration continues to support free trade which helps to open up new markets to US products and increase US exports which creates jobs in the United States.
KERRY
1. I do not support Kerry for a number of reasons which include his record on Defense, Foreign Policy, and to a lesser degree International Trade and economics because of his reversal on some of these issues in order to gain support from labor Unions and other anti-capitialist, globalism, free trade groups in the democratic party.
a. On defense, John Kerry started his 1984 campaign for Senate by anouncing his proposal to cancel the development and production of weapon systems that would later become vital weapon systems for are military that were used to help win wars quickly and keep casualties to a minimum. In that 1984 campaign, John Kerry proposed doing away with the M1 Tank, M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle, Patriot Missile System, and Apache Attack Helicopter, just to name a few weapon systems. These weapon systems were crucial in the military buildup of the 1980s that gave the US military its first real modern military and gave it the best equipment in all area's for the first time in its history. These weapon systems are so good that they are still in use today and second to none despite their age now.
This is how John Kerry's time in the Senate began, and for most of his time in the Senate, his policies on defense have either followed the above, or have not been significantly active in trying to increase defense spending. There is much dispute about how Kerry voted for this or for that, but the fact remains that Kerry is on record as being one that proposed canceling multiple weapon systems, rather than being a Senator that called for and fully embraced a significant build up in defense spending. Kerry was not considered a "Reagan Democrat" at all.
b. On Foreign Policy, John Kerry voted in 1991 to continue to only use sanctions in order to remove Saddam from Kuwait. He did not support the use of military force to remove Saddam from Kuwait. He did not support the UN resolutions that called for the removal of Saddam's forces from Kuwait with military force. He called the coalition that George Bush Sr. built a sham in the 1991 Gulf War.
Sanctions obviously were never going to remove Saddam from Kuwait and in fact were incapable of changing any policies by Saddam. Bush Sr. understood that Saddam only understood the language of force. Kerry failed to understand that and was unwilling to take the action necessary to effectively protect US and Global security at that time.
While Kerry supported Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, he would later attempt to waterdown that support and attempt to recast his vote as something other than what it was. In addition, he voted against the funding of 87 Billion dollars for operation in Afghanistan and Iraq for our military as well as funds for the Afghan and Iraqi people.
Kerry's failure to support the first Gulf War is obvious, his support and idea's for the current war in Iraq are muddled and subject to his winning his parties nomination and perhaps the election.
Kerry has jumped on the liberal bandwagon that absurdly claims that Bush administration policies have been unitlateral and have failed to get support from other countries. Kerry has failed to explain his plans for Iraq and US foreign policy and only seems capable of pointing out what he sees as failures in the Bush administrations foreign policy without having a detailed plan of his own to accomplish undefined goals and reverse percieved policy failures of the current administration. He has yet to explain how his policy in Iraq and elsewhere would be truely different from the Bush administrations. Would Kerry really be able to get more countries involved in Iraq than there are now? If so, how many and how many troops per country?
c. On International Trade and the economy, Kerry in the past has been a free trader and he has supported cutting taxes at least for the middle class. But his recent moves towards more protectionism and other ideas supported by labor unions and other anti-trade, anti-globalist groups have only caused me to doubt how he would stand on these issues if elected President.
NADAR
I'll save some space here and just say that if the election were just between Kerry and Nadar, I would vote for Kerry easily. Nadar is very far to the left of Kerry when it comes to the above issues.
To sum up, George Bush is the best candidate for President because he has done and excellant job on defense, foreign policy, and has helped get the economy moving after a recession and 9/11. Kerry has a poor record on Defense and Foreign Policy and has flip flopped on supporting free trade and tax cuts.