What Bush Threw Away - WaPo

[rndmprsn]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17262-2004Nov1.html

George W. Bush once had a chance to be looking forward to a landslide victory today and a nation committed to standing together in defeating terrorism.

Instead, the president is perilously close to defeat. The best he can hope for is a narrow victory that will leave the nation bitter, divided and angry. One of Bush's achievements will be exceptional voter turnout and a renewal of the idea that elections and political parties matter. The downside, for him at least, is that a large share of the country has been activated for the primary purpose of ending his presidency.

The appalling reappearance of Osama bin Laden on the eve of our election was a reminder of what has been lost and of what Bush threw away. Three years ago, bin Laden was a symbol of the evil that Americans -- nearly all of us -- were fighting against. Now even bin Laden has been politicized.

... But the cost of such a victory will be paid off for many years -- perhaps for as long as we're paying off the debt. Consider the reaction to bin Laden. Right there on Fox News, the Bush Channel, a Republican operative named David Johnson thought bin Laden's strange disquisition could be interpreted only one way. "This almost looks," he said, "like an endorsement by Osama bin Laden of John Kerry."

And thus were the last vestiges of the unity achieved on Sept. 11 wiped off the face of our politics. If holding power meant reaching this ultimate in guilt-by-association (and more respectable conservative commentators were offering similar thoughts in a more respectable way), then go right ahead and use bin Laden to win the election. The mess can be cleaned up later.

[LTRS]

1. Rethuglican greed

and the reprehensible compulsion to use a national tragedy to push their agenda is what will do him in. He just couldn't resist the opportunity to push every disgusting right wing plan he had off the backs of 3000 dead Americans. When he loses tomorrow it will be the best example of poetic justice this world has ever seen.