The people favor the man who makes the right decision

It has been thirteen days, and liberals still cannot comprehend how their chosen one fell to the incoherent and incompetent incumbent. How was it that a simple man, who struggles to speak with proper grammar, defeated a sharp and articulate war hero? Perhaps it was dissention in the ranks of the Democrats. Maybe the scare tactics by the Bush administration worked. No, it must have been the Americans from the South, with their inferior IQ scores, who made the wrong choice that will destroy our country for the next four years. Despite these analyses, left-wing political pundits have overlooked the unambiguous solution worthy of Ockham?s razor. Perhaps George W. Bush is the better president.
Before you tear up this paper and rip your hair out in agony, I should explain myself. I recognize that President Bush presided over the largest net loss of jobs since Herbert Hoover. I admit that the war in Iraq may have been fought for not-so-humanitarian reasons. I concede the fact that his proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage is a blatant violation of civil rights. All these facts are very real and very disturbing to me. However, there are alternate explanations for President Bush?s perceived shortcomings, besides the Pavlovian response ?Bush is an Idiot.?
The economy is very complex and unpredictable in nature. If you could break down GDP or any other economic indicator (say, unemployment rates) into a linear model, it would be very obvious to see that there are nearly an infinite number of variables, many of which are out of the control of any sort of federal regulation. To place the responsibility entirely on the President?s economic policies by measuring the performance of the economy in a given period is ludicrous. Blaming President Bush for the recession and economic downturn is comparable to condemning Clinton for facilitating the preceding technology bubble.
Homeland Security is also very important to the American people. John Kerry declared that President Bush ?outsourced? the capture of the world?s most infamous terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to Afghan warlords. This is very misleading, as demonstrated in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal by Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong. DeLong, the general in charge of the operation to capture Bin Laden, declared that U.S. forces were in command the entire time, only seeking help from the local warlords.
What of the use of fear tactics by the Bush administration? The terror alert levels incited responses ranging from ridicule by late-night television shows to anxiety by panicky citizens. Colors are no good; the American people want a prediction. We don?t want to hear about ?increased chatter? among terrorist operatives. We want a solid answer rather than a vague warning. But of course, there is almost never a clear-cut answer to our questions until afterwards. And then of course, with the aid of hindsight glasses, we condemn those who are responsible for not properly warning us.
And finally, we?ve all heard the whole ?wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time? rhetoric. Now we know that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and our American brothers and sisters may have died for no reason other than a massive intelligence failure. Does this, however, mean that President Bush made the wrong decision to disarm Saddam Hussein? Hindsight is always 20/20. Given the possibility that a dictator who has reason to hate the United States, who has a history of misleading UN inspectors, and who is suspected to have weapons of mass destruction; should any President sit idly by?
People tend to forget that, sometimes, good decisions can result in bad outcomes. And what course of action would Kerry have taken? Create a coalition of the willing before proceeding any further? Insist on a multilateral force before pursuing a potential national security threat? Sometimes, a leader needs to have the resolve to make a decision alone.
So what does all this mean? Clearly, this editorial full of explanations and rebuttals may not convince you that President Bush was the right choice for America. What it boils down to isn?t a stance on a certain subject, nor is it a position on a certain issue. What is important is simply character. An outstanding President is a model of integrity, strength, and resolve. The President has shown, from his past four years, that he is not going to waver in the face of challenges up ahead. Good decisions do not always result in perfect outcomes, but the people will always favor the man who will always be brave enough to make the right decision.