[Industrialblog,
October 3, 2004]
BTW, Still ain't voting for Kerry
I dislike John Kerry more as a result of the debate. But that's because despite his presence and articulation, I still find the substance of his ideas wanting and his style of speech manipulative. Kerry seemed more presidential -- but pretty much the kind of president I don't want.
I prefer Bush's ideas and judgments, but he lacks any kind of serious executive presence. He's not Fortune 5000 material, much less presidential material. The Republicans screwed up by nominating this guy. Now they're [we're]stuck with him.
I prefer Bush's ideas and judgments, but he lacks any kind of serious executive presence. He's not Fortune 5000 material, much less presidential material. The Republicans screwed up by nominating this guy. Now they're [we're]stuck with him.
At least it is a lot more interesting now.
SG
DIE hippie!
SuperG: Interesting? Don't we live in interesting enough times?
Actually, plenty of CEOs have no real presence (of any kind). In fact, many of the better ones were shy and the bad ones more present than five bold people tied together.
But I grant you it's a great pity that Bush is no Churchill. We could have used someone who could rouse the populace. If Bush had had more oratory ability, Iraq might well be better off and fewer soldiers dead.
But we must make do with the world we have, not the one in which we're all better men than we are, except for ourselves.
Chris - if you were looking for someone to run your company - would you really hire Bush? Didn't we just hit our $7.4 trillion dollar debt limit yesterday? Might they not be correlated.
Would I hire Bush? Probably not as the CEO. But then I'd chase Kerry out of the office if he ever walked into it looking for a job.
As for the debt, we are in a time of war. However, that's not even the big issue, for me. Our taxation level is way, way, way too high. It's immorally high. All told the government probably takes a bit over 20% of my paycheck before I ever see it, and I earn $40k/yr. I recently got a small raise (bringing me to $40k) and about 30% of it goes to paying taxes. As you start to earn more, it gets a lot closer to 50%.
Even in its high point the Catholic church only asked people to tithe.
What we need is not a balanced budget, we need reduced spending. We need to reduce the size of the leach on our backs, and if we need to pass through a large national debt, so be it. Better the pain of an operation than the pain of the cancer if it isn't removed.
Best of all, of course, to reduce spending as well as reduce taxes, but its better to get what you want imperfectly than to give it up entirely. Plus there is, after all, a war going on.