In case you didn’t notice last night there was a Presidential address given by some one other than the president. Meanwhile the man ‘playing’ President had to just sit there and take it. It’s been 3.5 long hard years. It was hard to tell back in 2000 that it was going to be this way. Most people assumed there really wasn’t that much difference between Gore & Bush. That’s why the Nader vote didn’t seem like such a bad idea. I voted for Gore in 2000 but I didn’t believe Bush was a danger to our nation (a belief which I now hold, hindsight).

In 2000 I remember a conversation I had with a Teaching Assistant at Ohio State. We had been working on a couple web projects throughout the summer and I assisted with one of his courses in the fall of 2000. After the election he was just irate, expressing how he knew how fucked we were. I thought the whole Florida thing was a sham but I didn’t believe the sky was falling, he did. Nearly 4 years later, I believe the sky has fallen.

The Economy is in shambles, nothing the President has done in 2 years has changed anything. It took me nearly 12 months to find a job after graduation. I know several people who still haven’t found that job. Back in 1999/2000 I remember people who had jobs lined up before their senior year had started. It has not gotten any better in the last 2 years.

The War is a disaster, the President can’t even say how we got here without a wink and a smile. He seems to think since where in the thick of it it really doesn’t matter how we got here. He’s wrong. This is what the election is about, how can you trust this guy to make the right decision next time? As we saw last night he can’t argue his side effectively, which means he (and by extension my nation) is at the will of his advisers who have been wrong at every turn.

John Kerry can make his point, he’s been in tough situations before where decisions had to be made or people would die (including himself). George Bush has never had to make a decision in his live without the help of close advisers. When the cards are down and there’s nothing between you and them who can stand on his own two feet? I think last night George Bush showed he’s all hat no cattle.

In the New Hampshire Union Leader John Eisenhower, son of former President and Supreme Allied Commander in WWII, has written a piece titled: Why I will vote for John Kerry for President.

As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration’s decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.

The fact is that today’s “Republican” Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar. To me, the word “Republican” has always been synonymous with the word “responsibility,” which has meant limiting our governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms. Today’s whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not meet that criterion…

The Republicans used to be deeply concerned for the middle class and small business. Today’s Republican leadership, while not solely accountable for the loss of American jobs, encourages it with its tax code and heads us in the direction of a society of very rich and very poor.

Sen. Kerry, in whom I am willing to place my trust, has demonstrated that he is courageous, sober, competent, and concerned with fighting the dangers associated with the widening socio-economic gap in this country. I will vote for him enthusiastically.

I celebrate, along with other Americans, the diversity of opinion in this country. But let it be based on careful thought. I urge everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike, to avoid voting for a ticket merely because it carries the label of the party of one’s parents or of our own ingrained habits.

Complete article here.