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After the last debate, I'm disappointed in George Bush. I was eager to see his October surprise. Would it be a sworn statement that Bill Clinton might have crossed his fingers during the Pledge of Allegiance in 1971? A photo of Hillary chatting with a card-carrying ACLU member? Evidence that Chelsea has a friend in a Montessori school?
He let us down. He just sneered at Arkansas. Apparently Bush has been so preoccupied with world affairs that he's shocked to learn that not only is Arkansas part of the United States, but it's also a relatively poor state inhabited by people struggling to get by.
He expected us to share his amazement, but unfortunately, struggling to get by in a relatively poor place is no novelty to many of us.
The presidential thunderbolt was a dud. I wish Bush had done better, because there's a lot of Clinton's program I don't like. We don't need 100,000 more cops; we need about 100,000 fewer laws.
Moreover, Bush had a pretty good environmental record until this year, although he's running away from it now. He supports school vouchers, as do I, but he's done nothing to implement them -- certainly he could offer $20 million to any school district willing to try.
Like President Bush, I don't think we need another
tax and spend
liberal. But the alternative he offers
is borrow and spend
conservatism, which is even
worse.
Look at it this way. We are apparently stuck with a big, active, intrusive federal government. Ronald Reagan went in with a mandate in 1981 when he promised to eliminate two cabinet departments, among other things.
When he departed in 1989, we still had energy and education departments, along with a new cabinet post for veteran affairs. He was going to get government off our backs, and government went deeper into our wallets, into our bedrooms, into our blood and urine.
If the Great Communicator couldn't do the job then, I doubt it can be done now. And the Bush campaign style continues to be disgusting or worse.
Clinton is a poor kid from nowhere who worked hard to make something of himself. Does George Bush ever mention that this fact is one of the glories of America -- that the stepson of a ne'er-do-well alcoholic, the son of a wealthy senator and a self-made billionaire can stand on a platform and argue about what direction this country should take?
No, when he's not insulting the the lowest of the
low
Arkansawyers, he disparages Clinton as an Oxford
debater.
What the hell kind of message is that for our children? That no matter how hard you study, no matter how many how many opportunities you make for yourself, the American aristocracy will find a snide way to demean and defeat you.
For that reason alone, I hope Clinton wins and that Ross Perot comes in a close second. I want my children to believe that they can amount to something, even if I'm not a senator who can send them to Yale.
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