Are you sure about that candidate?

Interesting little site that asks your opinion on 17 major political issues. Once you’ve completed the answers, it shows you how you match up to the Presidential candidates in the 2004 race.

SELECT SMART

Feel free to post your results here.

Here are my results.

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Bush, President George W. - Republican (92%)
3. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (54%)

I was actually surprised that I was over 50% with Kerry…. then I remembered he takes both sides of every issue, so I’m surprised it’s actually under 100%……

General cooperation vs. planned coordination

Does anyone on the Left understand that the 9/11 Commission DID NOT contradict the Bush administration? Let me spell it out for you.

1. Bush administration has never said definitively that they have proof Iraq aided in the planning and carrying out of 9/11. They have maintained that Iraq is part of the war on terror because Iraq had longstanding relations with terror groups (including funding Palestinian terrorists� families).

2. The 9/11 Commission was tasked with uncovering EVIDENCE RELATED TO 9/11. Nothing more, nothing less. The 9/11 Commission�s report only states that it found no evidence showing Saddam had a hand in the planning or carrying out of 9/11.

But folks, there is a significant difference between the two. It is quite possible (and the current and former administrations acknowledge) that there has existed a longstanding relationship between al Qaeda and the Iraqi regime, while at the same time Saddam�s regime had no hand in 9/11 planning or attacking. Wow, what a revelation��

I think it’s great to see the Left promoting the 9/11 Commission’s report as some kind of smoking gun against the Bush administration. What does this mean? It means the Left is once again trying to politicize the issue and finding itself on the wrong side of the debate. The Left is trying to use the 9/11 report as some foundation to support their mantra, but they’re failing to realize the 9/11 Commission wasn’t concerned with exploring every possible avenue of cooperation between al Qaeda and Iraq, they were only concerned with learning who planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks, period. So this means they haven’t bothered themselves with miles and miles of documentation and other facts indicating the long-standing cooperation between al Qaeda and Iraq. But the Left just doesn’t get it. And that’s funny as hell.

Now they’re painting themselves into a box again, and they’re going to have a hard time getting out of this one. You see, as Kerry and the others run around the country repeating “Bush lied” and saying there is no evidence of cooperation or a relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq, they’re forgetting altogether the entire 1990s. When the Democrats had their own party in control, and they were trying to make terrorism out to be a simple criminal matter, they were making statements and even filing legal documents that completely contradict their position today (and, in fact, support the Bush administration’s actions).

To see both sides of an issue, we need not evaluate what was said by the Republicans and the Democrats…. it seems these days that one need only look at the Democrats. You see, you can pretty much completely view both sides of an issue by comparing the position after 2000 with positions before 2000…..OF JUST THE DEMOCRATS!

Post-2000

John Kerry said, “This administration took its eye off of al-Qaida, took its eye off of the real war on terror in Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan and transferred it for reasons of its own to Iraq, and the American people are paying billions of dollars now because of that decision. And most importantly, American families and American soldiers are paying the highest price of all… It is clear that the president owes the American people a fundamental explanation about why he rushed to war for a purpose that it now turns out is not supported by the facts, and that is the finding of this commission.” source

Pre-2000
An indictment by the Clinton Justice Department in 1998:

“Additionally, the indictment states that Al Qaeda reached an agreement with Iraq not to work against the regime of Saddam Hussein and that they would work cooperatively with Iraq, particularly in weapons development.” source

Pre-2000

[Richard] Clarke did provide new information in defense of Clinton’s decision to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, Sudan, in retaliation for bin Laden’s role in the Aug. 7 embassy bombings.

While U.S. intelligence officials disclosed shortly after the missile attack that they had obtained a soil sample from the El Shifa site that contained a precursor of VX nerve gas, Clarke said that the U.S. government is “sure” that Iraqi nerve gas experts actually produced a powdered VX-like substance at the plant that, when mixed with bleach and water, would have become fully active VX nerve gas.

Clarke said U.S. intelligence does not know how much of the substance was produced at El Shifa or what happened to it. But he said that intelligence exists linking bin Laden to El Shifa’s current and past operators, the Iraqi nerve gas experts and the National Islamic Front in Sudan.

Given the evidence presented to the White House before the airstrike, Clarke said, the president “would have been derelict in his duties if he didn’t blow up the facility.”

Post-2000

“While knocking down the president�s assertions” source

�Already in question, President Bush’s justification for war in Iraq has suffered another major setback.� source

�Report points to White House errors.� source

�Campaigning in Detroit, the presidential candidate says it’s clear the administration has misled the public on the reasons for war. Kerry cites the conclusion of the Nine-Eleven commission that it could find no evidence to support claims of a “collaborative relationship” between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein.� source

Pre-2000
And, again, the Clinton administration indictment found the same thing the Bush administration touted � an �understanding� between al Qaeda and Iraq in their mutual goal of the destruction of the U.S., and an agreement to WORK COOPERATIVELY.

In addition, al Qaeda reached an understanding with the government of Iraq that al Qaeda would not work against that government and that on particular projects, specifically including weapons development, al Qaeda would work cooperatively with the Government of Iraq. source

So you folks on the Left keep acting as if you�ve found the Holy Grail. The truth always prevails, and while it may take a little while for this evidence to filter through your liberal media outlets, seeping through somewhere between another episode of 60 Minutes touting another liberal or Bush-bashing book and your unbiased news programs giving infinite coverage of another Hollywood slob�s deceitful anti-American propaganda.

And for those keeping score, the Bush and Clinton administrations found the same thing�.. and the Left says only one of them is lying.

Imagine that.

Quotes: About Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush?

Saw this posted at “The Corner” on National Review Online. See if you can pick which quotes were about Reagan and which were referring to Bush.

1)”European discomfort with the President, however, goes beyond the
political differences that preceded and will outlast his presidency. It has,
as well, a personal basis. He appears to Europeans to be ill equipped for
the responsibility that he bears, a kind of cowboy figure, bellicose,
ignorant, with a simplistic view of the world.

2)”[The President] came to Europe to persuade people that he is not the
shallow, nuclear cowboy of certain unkind assessments. Said [a] White House
spokesman . on the eve of departure, ‘Some in Europe do not know or
understand him.’ But now that the president has been among them. Europeans
may think they got him right the first time.”

3)”For many Europeans. America has become paranoid. [which has] led them to
take their distance from us. Mutual recrimination becomes political action.
Both sides of the Atlantic, writes . an editor of the influential Hamburg
weekly Die Zeit, are ‘losing interest in each other.’ . The estrangement has
not come naturally. The communality of heritage and beliefs between the
United States and Europe is old and powerful and has withstood frequent
vicissitudes. However, an accumulation of events and developments has built
up enough discord to threaten the most solid of foundations.”

4)”The anti-American theme, a popular subject for campaigning politicians,
is aimed mostly at U.S. policy and the [U.S.] administration. This country
is pictured as a French David standing up to an American Goliath. [The
French foreign minister] warned during the . controversy: ‘There is a
progressive divorce between Washington and Europe .. The U.S. seems totally
indifferent to our problems.’”

5)”In a day of protests across Western Europe, hundreds of thousands of
people demonstrated against the [American policy]. The protest organizers
said about 1.2 million people took part in the demonstrations.. Hundreds of
thousands jammed central London in what was said to be the largest protest
of its kind in British history. In Rome, an estimated 350,000 marchers
paraded through the center of the city.”

6) “Europe Sees U.S. Foreign Policy As Out Of Control” - Los Angeles Times
headline

7) “Speaking to members of the American Stock Exchange, [Senator Edward]
Kennedy said, ‘Our present course is taking the United States toward
unilateral intervention . toward a war, whether we want it or not, whether
we like it or not, (that) will inevitably involve American forces in combat.
But surely, an American invasion. would plunge us into the most unwanted,
unnecessary and unjustified war in our history,’ Kennedy said.. Kennedy said
Congress must propose ‘an alternative policy with a real prospect of
success.’ ‘So, as a first step, we must call off the dogs of war,’ he said.”

8)”[W]e have a President who is obsessed by the subject. [Nicaragua for
Ronald Reagan - or Iraq for George W. Bush] is his Moby Dick. Like a
political Ahab, he pursues it beyond reason, beyond humanity, beyond safety.
In his frustration, he spews out rage and hate, fear and falsehood.”

9) “[The President] has substituted a mindless militarism for a foreign
policy. frightening our friends. Already, the cost of [the President’s]
policies is devastating to our country in economic strength, in diplomatic
influence, in national security, in moral stature.”

10) “‘This has been a foreign policy without a guiding star,’ said. a former
official in Republican administrations. ‘It has been the most ideological
administration of U.S foreign relations I’ve seen and the least conceptual,
in terms of a clear vision of what the world ought to be like and what we
would do to get there.’”

11)”The tangible achievements of his first term have been relatively modest.
His economic program, in the judgment of many experts, has succeeded almost
in spite of itself - and the current recovery is built on record deficits
that will burden the nation for a generation. His foreign policy has lacked
coherence.”

12) “Unilateral intervention by a truculent and trigger-happy Uncle Sam
might delight some U.S. citizens - frustrated by events, eager for easy
answers - but elsewhere. it would only serve to reaffirm the worst fears.”

13) “The United States has a myopic, ideological foreign policy that really
isn’t a policy at all, but a collection of maneuvers produced by prejudice
and instinct. The men responsible for American diplomacy, it seems, often
fail to grasp they have put us into grave trouble around the world.. [The
President] has angered and undermined his closest ally in Europe, [the
British Prime Minister], and he has aggravated the gravest problem facing
the United States, a problem symbolized by the largest protest
demonstrations in Europe since World War II…”

14)”To win that vote [congressional vote to authorize support for its
foreign policy goals], the Administration is now reduced to McCarthyite
tactics: the insinuation that foes of its . policy are . stooges or worse.
Can Congress be whipped by these tactics into a policy of such moral,
military and political degradation?”

15)”When a politician claims that God favors his programs, alarm bells
should ring. If there is anything that should be illegitimate in the
American system, it is such use of sectarian religiosity to sell a political
program. And this was done not by some fringe figure, but by the President
of the United States.”

16)”What is the world to think when the greatest of powers is led by a man
who applies to the most difficult human problem a simplistic theology - one
in fact rejected by most theologians?… What must the leaders of Western
Europe think of such a speech? . The exaggeration and the simplicities are
there not only in the rhetoric but in the process by which he makes
decisions.”

17)”Perhaps even more dangerous, [the President’s] smug view, if further
inculcated in Americans, will preclude self-examination, humility, a
willingness to concede error. Are we so clearly a God-directed, chosen
people that we have no need to question our virtue, or the evil of our
rivals? If [the President] really thinks so, he has shaken off the strongest
restraints on human conduct - doubt and fear.”

18) “[Pollster Lou Harris] believes that [the President] is polarizing the
country more than any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt and that, when
such strong political polarization occurs, it tends to lead to a greater
voter turnout. That would benefit the Democrats.”

19) “‘[The President] has been a divider, not a uniter. The American people
will reject four more years of danger, four more years of pain,’ [a leading
congressional Democrat] said.”

20) “[One state Democratic chairman] said: ‘[The President] has a lot of
problems. The less he does, the better he does; the more he does, the worse
he does. He keeps polarizing the voters, and the Republican Party is not big
enough to allow that. An incumbent President must unite the country, not
divide it. It’s unbelievably bad strategy on their part.’”

QUIZ ANSWERS

Every one of those quotes was about Reagan.

1) Michael Mandelbaum, Foreign Affairs, “America and the World 1985″

2) Mary McGrory, Washington Post, June 10, 1982

3) New York Times, May 9, 1982

4) US News & World Report, December 20, 1982

5) James M. Markham, New York Times, October 23, 1983

6)Los Angeles Times headline, December 4, 1986

7) United Press International, June 11, 1985

8) Anthony Lewis, New York Times, March 24, 1986

9) John B. Oakes, former senior editor, New York Times, November 1, 1981

10) Don Oberdorfer, Washington Post, November 20, 1983

11) Tom Morganthau, Newsweek, August 27, 1984

12) Editorial, Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1985

13) Robert Kaiser, Washington Post, October 30, 1983

14) John B. Oakes, New York Times, March 7, 1986

15) Anthony Lewis, New York Times, March 10, 1983

16) Anthony Lewis, New York Times, March 10, 1983

17) Tom Wicker, New York Times, March 15, 1983

18) Haynes Johnson, Washington Post, January 29, 1984

19) The Associated Press, January 30, 1984

20) Dom Bonafede, The National Journal, May 5, 1984

The L.A. Times Poll: It’s what it doesn’t say that is so telling…

L.A. Times Poll Shows Voters Favor Kerry
LOS ANGELES - Democratic candidate John Kerry leads President Bush 51 percent to 44 percent among American voters in a two-way race for president, according to a Los Angeles Times poll published Thursday. source

When one reads the above article, they think they’re getting a sense of what the outcome of November’s election might be. Those on the Right may get frustrated and those on the Left jump for joy…. but does the article and underlying poll really tell us what we think it does?

Not a chance.

TWISTED: LA Times Poll Had Sample With 38% Democrats, 25% Republicans
Sen. John Kerry “has taken big lead,” according “to an L.A. Times poll.”

But the Times poll that showed Kerry “beating Bush by 7 points” has created a controversy over whether the poll’s sample accurately reflects the population as whole.

“Not counting independents, the Times’ results were calculated on a sample made up of 38 percent Democrats and 25 percent Republicans — a huge and unheard-of margin.” source

So, instead of a resounding Kerry victory and shameful Bush defeat, as the L.A. Times wants America to believe is going to happen - the real story is the fact that despite PACKING THEIR POLL WITH 13 PERCENT MORE DEMOCRATS, the L.A. Times poll has Kerry leading by ONLY SEVEN POINTS.

That, my friends, appears to be a bigger story than the bogus article touting a bogus poll. I think Bush supporters can take comfort in the fact that when media outlets stack their polls to achieve the results they want to publish, they still can’t seem to get Democrats to support Kerry in wholesale. I’m sorry, but 13 percent more Democrats in the poll ought to give the Democrat candidate more than just a seven point lead…..

Once again, the liberal media elitists don’t think you dumb, average Americans will do any research and will instead rely on what they spoonfeed you…. unfortunately, there are some out there with bibs ready and waiting.

Reagan Week

And as the credits roll a sad song starts to play,
Oh the last goodbye’s the hardest one to say,
And this is where the cowboy rides away….

Reagan Week

“The time is now, my fellow Americans, to recapture our destiny, to take it into our own hands.”

Reagan Week

Reagan Week

“We’ve done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for 8 years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren’t just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.”

Reagan Week

Some of my favorite Ronald Reagan quotes, notice how applicable they are today…

ON LEADERSHIP

“We did not seek the role of leadership that has been thrust upon us. But whether we like it or not, the events of our time demand America’s participation.”
- October 12, 1972

“A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough.”
- December 5, 1990

“The challenge of statesmanship is to have the vision to dream of a better, safer world and the courage, persistence, and patience to turn that dream into reality.”
- March 8, 1985

“…peace is the highest aspiration of the American People. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it, we will never surrender for it, now or ever.”
- January 20, 1981

“There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the founding fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system.”
- June 21, 1973

ON POLITICS

“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it.”

“How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”

HUMOROUS

“My fellow Americans. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve signed legislation outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes.” �joking during a mic check before his Saturday radio broadcast.

“It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?”

“I hope you’re all Republicans.” -speaking to surgeons as he entered the operating room following his assassination attempt

“I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” -during a 1984 presidential debate with Walter Mondale

“Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”

“I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”

“What makes him think a middle-aged actor, who’s played with a chimp, could have a future in politics?” -on Clint Eastwood’s bid to become mayor of Carmel

“I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency � even if I’m in a Cabinet meeting.”

We’ll miss you, Mr. President.

Goodbye Gipper