Al
Al’s
Loupe
‘Anybody But Bush’
won’t cut it
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alfernandez@progresoweekly.com
The
latest poll numbers demonstrate that President George W. Bush does better the
worse things get. With a 49 to 43 percent disadvantage (with Ralph Nader
registering 6 percent), Democratic Party contender John F. Kerry seems to have
withered during April.
This
decline occurring during a month when W’s War on Iraq has reached its worst
moment (to this point); the U.S. economy still dangles perilously; former
terrorist boss Richard Clarke made the president appear to use terrorism –
especially after September 11, 2001 – as a political tool by ignoring signs of
upcoming tragedies; and to top it off, the president’s National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice brilliantly teetered on the legal edge of more than one lie
during her testimony before the commission investigating 9-11.
And sure
there was more, but with what I have just described you would have thought that
John Kerry would be swinging for the fences, as was suggested by columnist
Arianna Huffington in last week’s Progreso Weekly. Instead, the American public
is still asking itself: and who the hell is John F. Kerry and what does
he really stand for?
Let’s
back up and take a look at Kerry and possibly predict if there is a winner in
November, as many desperate Americans would hope for.
For
starters, John Kerry seems to be emphasizing his initials more than ever. They
spell out JFK. Is he trying to remind us of a time a little more than 40 years
ago when another senator from Massachusetts dared to challenge Americans to
dream big?
Sorry
Senator Kerry. Liked him or not, President Kennedy had a way with words and
crowds. Something that to this day, John Kerry has lacked.
We also
know that John Kerry would make a wonderful spokesman for Botox. Yes, Botox: the
cosmetic injections to the face that have magically stretched the senator’s
wrinkles and filled out what was once a drawn out face.
But in
the long run this may have been a mistake. Sure, John Kerry may never win a
beauty contest, but gosh the old John Kerry had the look of a modern day Abe
Lincoln without the beard. And for Kerry, who sometimes seems to want to sound
more republican than some republicans, a comparison to old Abe – even if simply
in appearance – may have captured some republican votes he so desperately seeks,
sometimes at the expense of his own Party faithful.
Then we
have the Iraq War. Kerry sometimes scares me; he often reminds me of 1968 in a
weird sort of way. For those who can remember that far back, in ’68 we had
Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy promising to get us out of Vietnam. Of course,
we ended up with a dead Bobby, a sobbing McCarthy and Richard Nixon in the White
House. Bad went to worse and the country burned with race riots and Americans
everywhere opposed to this horrible war.
Now we
hear that if elected John Kerry proposes to send even more troops and assure
that we win a war that was started under false pretenses. A war, by the way, he
voted in favor of.
Senator,
my humble suggestion is that you read up on your history. It’s written, I think,
so that we may not repeat our mistakes. Don’t have the time to read as you stump
for the presidency? Then watch the Robert McNamara documentary, The Fog of
War. If that doesn’t convince you, then take the late Senator George Aiken’s
advice, who at the time of Vietnam suggested, “Declare victory and get out.”
I know
George W already called it a “Mission Accomplished,” but maybe the Lincolnesque
Senator from Massachusetts
can hang up his own banner that reads, “We Won! Now Bring Home Our Soldiers.” I
wonder how Karl Rove would counter that one.
Worse yet,
Kerry, deathly afraid of losing part of the Jewish vote to W and his zealots,
agreed with the President’s endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s
“bogus peace plan” as was described by Progreso columnist Max Castro last week.
Examples
like the ones just mentioned abound. And the American public continues to ask
itself, who really is this guy?
Senator
Kerry needs to take the bull by the horn, as the saying goes. If he really
believes that an ‘Anybody But Bush’ candidacy will put him over the top, then
let’s all call it a day because I don’t see it.
Kerry
needs to dig deep. And yes, give us a little JFK... the 1960 variety. Talk to us
and convince us. Tell us what we need to hear. Even, initially, if it hurts.
Our
economy is in the dumps. A war few understand has made us less safe from
terrorists. Close to 50 million Americans have NO health insurance. The elderly
cannot afford life sustaining medication. Public education is leaving children
behind. The top 1 percent of big business representatives flourishes as the
bottom 99 percent are taxed more and more in exchange for less and less. Rich
vs. poor. Blacks vs. whites. Latinos vs. blacks and whites. Patriot Acts 1 and
2.
John
Kerry must deal with these issues. And he hasn’t. The American public is waiting
to hear from him. And time’s running out.
So my
suggestion to Senator Kerry is to skip the Botox and stop trying out-bush Bush.
Be yourself, I say, kick some ass by asserting yourself, and then leave it up to
the American public to decide.
I am
convinced that if the Senator does go for the fences, and the voting
machines are programmed fairly come November, we may just turn back the
clock to a time when Americans looked forward to better times. Today that’s not
happening.
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