Compelling Argument For Bush

Another good Glenn Reynolds post for Bush.

When an incumbant runs, the election becomes basically a thumbs up or thumbs down for him.

For Glenn, Bush is doing the smart thing, Foreign Policy-wise, with respect to Islamic Fascism, and since that's the most important issue - it trumps all else. A fair position, I'd say.

Let me do my own tally:

Domestic - Thumbs down, way down. Deficit spending - Bad. Pandering to social conservatives - bad. Contempt for California energy crisis - bad (yeah, i still remember). Potential to appoint uber-conservative supreme court justices - bad. Gay marriage position - down b/c of the Con Amendment, but interestingly in favor of civil unions. Tax cuts for wealthy - down. Education - ?? and no child left behind, I'm honestly not sure. All my liberal friends whine about it, but that doesn't mean it's not working - the truth of the matter is, I have no clue. But overall, it's not a good tally. Economy in general - small down, because I honestly don't feel like the economy is determined by short term policies.

Foreign Policy - Thumbs moderately up. Iraq - moderate thumbs up. Afghanistan - very moderate thumbs up. Al Queda - they haven't attacked, but we haven't got Bin Laden, Zarqarwi, or al-Zawahiri, or Mullah Omar (Taliban) - medium, no thumbs up or down. Alienation of the rest of the world - medium again. I think the rest of the world have acted and continue to act, for the most part, like a bunch of passive, anti-American, assholes. But at the same time, we've had alliances for a long time with Europe and it seems to me in the past, we were able to work with those passive, anti-American assholes.

So the tally for me is a moderate thumbs up foreign policy - wise, major major thumbs down for domestic policy. I think Foreign Policy these days ought to outweigh domestic policy because of the war, so it becomes a near wash...

Maybe Bush was the right guy to get change started, deflect some of the American-hatred into Bush hatred, and now it's time to move on with a nicer, friendlier, Kerry-face to the rest of the world. I dunno, honestly. Not like my vote matters anyhow, this is Kerry country either way.