Election 2004: A clear and important choice

We may say it every four years, but this year it’s true: This is the most important presidential election of our lifetime.

Why? Because, in most elections, there are only one or two issues at stake: health care, Social Security or the economy. In 1992, for example, the entire campaign was summed up in James Carville’s now-famous war cry: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

But this year, it’s not just the economy. Everything is on the table. Election 2004 is about the economy, health care, Social Security, Medicare, education, the environment and whether our basic civil liberties are still intact under the Patriot Act. But it’s also about our standing in the world, the war in Iraq and the war on terror. Never has there been so much at stake in any election.

Nor have voters ever been given a clearer choice. The tired old characterization of “Tweedledum vs. Tweedledee” is certainly not true this year. John Kerry and George Bush differ on every issue – and would take the country in dramatically different directions. John Kerry offers new ideas on health care, tax cuts, creating jobs, cutting the deficit, winning the war in Iraq and fighting the war on terror. George Bush offers more of the same.

This election is, more than anything else, a referendum on the policies of George W. Bush. It’s nothing personal. It’s called democracy. He works for us, and his contract is up. The first question we must ask ourselves is: Has he done a good enough job over the last four years that we want to renew his contract? I believe, looking at Bush’s failed leadership across the board, the answer is a resounding “NO!”

Take the economy. George Bush turned a $250 billion surplus into a $420 billion deficit, by far the largest in history. He’s also delivered the biggest federal budget and the biggest federal bureaucracy in history. This so-called “fiscal conservative” has not vetoed one single spending bill. His mismanagement of the economy has driven the market down to two-thirds of what it was under Bill Clinton. George Bush has taken our economy from A-OK to IOU.

Take jobs. Bush promised that his tax cuts would immediately produce 5.5 million new jobs. Instead, 3 million private-sector jobs have been lost since January 2001, many of them sent overseas or “outsourced” – a policy the Bush administration claims is good for America. Even though a million new jobs have come back, Bush is still 2 million jobs in the hole. He will be the first president since Herbert Hoover with more Americans out of work at the end of four years than when he walked into the Oval Office.

Take the war in Iraq. George Bush and Dick Cheney may be the only two Americans left who think it was the right thing to do. Donald Rumsfeld now says there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Condoleezza Rice now admits she knew assertions about nuclear weapons were based on questionable sources. The chief weapons inspector reports Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and less capacity to build any new ones.

Over 1,100 Americans have died, yet Bush’s entire case for the war has collapsed. And he still refuses to send in more troops to protect our men and women on the ground.

So what, argue Bush supporters, he’s still a strong leader in the war on terror. But even there, Bush falls short. Remember: The worst terrorist attack in our history happened on his watch, after repeated warnings – read the 9-11 commission report – were ignored by the Bush White House. He abandoned the hunt for al-Qaida to pursue an unrelated war in Iraq – giving terrorists more reason to hate the United States, and fueling even more acts of terror against Americans and our allies.

And here at home, Bush’s entire war on terror consists of making it more time-consuming to board a plane. He’s done little or nothing to protect our ports, nuclear plants, trucks, trains or refineries, or screen the cargo loaded into the belly of airliners. Despite his many color-coded alerts, Bush has made us less safe from terrorism, not more.

On issue after issue: George W. Bush has proven he’s not up to the job. John Kerry can’t do any worse. But I believe he will do a hell of a lot better.