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Let's face it, this last State of the Union was thus far Bush's weakest effort. The almost singular highlight was that it included one of the most potent lines in American foreign policy in at least ten years, if not a generation (not counting this administration's previous greatest hits):

"For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible -- and no one can now doubt the word of America."

While there are more than a few cynical ways one can call the word of America into question, the application of this phrase towards the willingness to use force is currently very accurate, and easily the main reason Bush probably deserves another term.

I suspect that many Americans voting for Bush could really give a rat's ass about gay marriage, steroids in professional sports or government-funded programs to place prisoners in jobs. Some of Bush's domestic statements were pointless (and probably ineffective) pandering to expand the base, and some were actually inappropriate for the setting (Steroids?! Baseball? WTF?). The "compassionate" domestic assault strikes me as overreach and enhances Bush's weaknesses regarding what John McCain labeled as the government's "drunken sailor" spending. I'm also not sure the President really needs to set an agenda for every aspect of American life. (What does George Bush think about American Idol anyway?!)

No, the key issue that George needs to rehash over and over and over (and over) is going to be this: Do you want to change horses in midstream? Or do you want to give the Bush administration the chance to have four more election-free years (two, counting mid-terms) to drive home it's foreign policy; four more years to have the power to use diplomatic coercion in the war on terror, now that we have so strikingly demonstrated a willingness to dollop huge mounds of pain on our enemies at great political risk?

I and many others suspect that this is the most immediately bankable pay-off to the war in Iraq, even if Democracy fails to take root (God help us) and off-the-shelf WMD is not discovered (a likely scenario). At this moment, the State Department can have a discussion with Syria, state a list of demands, and the purple elephant in the room is an implicit threat that Bush is just serious (or crazy, or arrogant or Texan) enough to launch a military attack to accomplish the goal. If Bush is re-elected, this elephant grows very, very big. Some might say steroid-big, though the elephant will fly into a rage and vigorously deny it. So big that Kim Jong-Il may halt his nuclear program just to avoid drowning in elephant shit.

Does voting for a Democrat undermine the power of purple elephant shit? Probably. Ask yourself this: who is Bashar al-Assad, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Jaques Chirac, Kim Jong-Il, Magneto, Satan and various other declared or covert enemies of America rooting for in November? And why?

And do your fears about domestic policy (if you disagree with Bush on many things, as I do) outweigh the importance of giving the US the chance to capitalize on this unique opportunity?

Posted by Bill at January 22, 2004 02:17 PM | TrackBack (1)

Comments

Posted by: ray at May 4, 2004 08:53 AM

Posted by: ray at May 5, 2004 11:31 AM

Posted by: ray at May 5, 2004 08:01 PM