St. Ignatius's The Eye: Volume LXXIX Number II

In what has been called the most important presidential election in the history of the United States, I can not mask my disappointment in the Democrats for not being able to offer up a worthy challenger to Bush. I, however, must give credit where it is due; the Republicans have done an excellent job of playing the complicated game of politics. Even though no weapons of mass destruction have been found, there still isn't a clear link between Usama and Saddam, and the US death toll in Iraq reaches one thousand, Bush continues to have the support of many Americans for the Iraqi war. I am not saying the war in and of itself is a good or a bad move. Rather, I am extremely disappointed in our reasons for going to war. Current justification for war does not match what we Americans were told. Yet, give credit to Bush; while being able to keep up support for a controversial war, he has, at the same time, distracted a great deal of public attention from pressing domestic issues.
    Unfortunately, Kerry has not capitalized on these issues. Instead of basing his campaign on health care (1 in 6 Americans does not have health insurance) and social security, Kerry has painted himself as a patriotic war hero, and the Republicans have attacked it beautifully. I am not very concerned about how my president served; George Washington was a sub-par general but not a bad president; Abe Lincoln didn't base his presidency on a war record; FDR never served. Not only does the war-hero image not address crucial issues, Republicans have even forced the public to question the validity of Kerry's service record - the root of his campaign.
    Although Kerry does promise to create 10 million jobs by 2009 and provide health insurance for all children, such utopian goals make me (and perhaps the average voter) skeptical. Whereas Kerry could have formed his campaign around promises to halt job outsourcing and cite Barbara Ehrenreich's book on how minimum wage isn't enough to survive in today's society, he focused on a questionable war record, making a sidenote of his promise to increase minimum wage by about one dollar per hour.
    There are still a score of debates and one month's time for Kerry to become more convincing and present a more appealing platform. However, after the RNC, it doesn't look too good. I do see Kerry as the lesser evil. But I can only hope that so does the rest of America.