Pilkerton's Prognostications

This blog contains some of my past articles for the school newspaper and other musings I feel like posting. Beware liberals!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Fight the good fight

(9/29/04)

Sometimes you get lucky writing these articles and something really juicy and controversial pops out of the news and makes itself an easy topic to write about. A lot of the time this doesn't happen though and you're left wondering at the 11th hour what you're going to write about.
Outside of a few minor shots fired from the Bush, Cheney camp, aimed at the hapless Johns, nothing earth shattering took place in Presidential politics this week. One promising bit of news that did come off the wires this week was the announcement of Presidential Debate schedule.
This event has signaled the home stretch for these two candidates. Three debates and one VP debate will provide excellent fodder for at least two more articles.
In my travels this week I heard rumblings of protests of this rule and that rule by both the Bush and Kerry camps, but nothing terribly interesting.
These debates have turned in to nothing more than staged photo- ops with a few veiled insults tossed from one podium to the other. In retrospect the 2000 campaign proved to be little more than a ripe target for Will Ferrell and co. at SNL.
What we do know about the 2000 debate is that George W. Bush crushed Al Gore in the collective consciousness of America. Bush showed his personality as well as a sense of humor. The only real problem Bush will have will be his occasional oratory gaffes. Aside from these sporadic slips of the tongue, President Bush will be comfortably repeating his strong defense mantra and working on cementing his address for the next four years.
Kerry and his gaggle of advisors have to be careful this Thursday. Kerry's personality has not exactly captured the spirit of the nation. Kerry's own people admit that he, like Gore in the previous election, comes off as impersonal and robotic.
To offset this apparent lack of a personality the Dems are rumored to be considering putting a mannequin in his place to reportedly "make his smile seem a bit more natural." In any event, Kerry and company must be prepared to make real decisions and promise the American people more than a White House without Bush 43.
These debates are little more than beauty pageants and shmoozing festivals, but this year's batch of debates will hopefully define Bush's opponent and truly juxtapose their messages.
Up to this point all we have heard from Kerry, and all Democrats for that matter, is that he is the candidate that is simply not Bush. Kerry will have a stage where he can finally tell the American people what HE plans on doing and how HE plans on doing these things.
Only then will Kerry feel the pressure to elaborate on HOW all of these persuading proclamations of his can be feasibly implemented in government.
As I stated earlier, Bush will most likely stick to his message of defense as well as sing the praises of an economy that is finally inching its way past pre- September 11th heights. In my humble opinion this is Bush?s election to lose.
It is obvious that Bush wins the personality contest and has a considerable edge in the reliability contest, but where I worry is whether or not Dubya can effectively persuade the swing voters in key states to stick with the man who has us in Iraq. The only reason I am concerned about this particular topic is because the news media has taken to keeping a corpse count and essentially treating Bush like LBJ. Hopefully Bush can win over these voters by staying the course and illustrating a tighter, more expedient and safer exit strategy from Iraq.
There will be some of you out there, and I think I know who you are, who are angered by the two party system. My advice to you is to pick up those protest signs and get to Miami by Thursday.
Despite my seemingly jaded and wealth-driven outlook on life and politics, I understand and care about those who work hard for ridiculous goals and waste their time and money trying to get the world to listen.
My advice to you, noble caretakers of good faith and humanity, is to return to reality and pick a side because nothing you do, say, or write in letters will matter the moment you step off your campus soapboxes. Please for the good of mankind, and most importantly, yourselves, go to Miami and make yourselves heard. I assure you that the deafening silence of those you intend on reaching will finally make you understand that you're fighting the good fight, and losing.
So Godspeed my good readers, and pay attention to those debates. You may be able to find a true nugget of inspiration somewhere and perhaps enlighten you enough to make a viable decision come November second.

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