It's certainly a welcome thing to see W go. I remember watching with a sense of foreboding as he stumbled through the litigation to take the throne a little over 8 years ago. I don't know how many views I held then that I would now agree with completely, but my views on W haven't changed in the least.
W's failings were legion. He conflated "serious foreign policy" with "killing people and blowing shit up." His cowardice prompted sniveling, "creative" interpretations of the legal and moral guidelines regarding torture, eavesdropping, and general abuse of state power. Worse yet, the contagion of his cowardice spread from his office throughout the nation. Terrorism isn't among the top 10 most likely causes of death in America, nor the top 20. Fear-mongering on the part of the Bush Administration generally and the Sec. Treasury in particular lead to the passage of TARP. Fear-mongering on the part of the Bush Administration generally and the Sec. State in particular lead to our invasion of Iraq.
Then there's the "unsigning" of Kyoto, the huge deficits, Katrina (do we suppose that Obama would appoint a Michael Brown?), the well-meaning but fiscally questionable Medicare prescription coverage, the slipshod attempt at reforming social security. Guantanamo (Obama will have to straighten that out). Abu Ghraib (where was personal accountability on that one?). Scooter Libby (pardoned). NSA eavesdropping (another one for Obama). Political smothering of scientific evidence within Interior, EPA. Questionable firings of DOJ employees.
This is our country - Dubya was just renting it, and it's for damn sure that he's not getting his deposit back.
I haven't been entirely bullish on Obama either, but he's surely in an entirely different class from the menace we've just sent back to Texas. I'll have more to say about Obama soon, hopefully.
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Hmm, can't log in, but I could dig through the ohdear archives and find the argument you made in Sept/Oct of 2000 about how there was no real difference between Bush and Gore. Maybe you were playing devil's advocate, but I didn't think so at the time.
-KT
Hmm.. Couldn't find it, but link it up or paste it. A few thoughts without having read it: I didn't like Gore much either and I find myself disagreeing with both poltical parties over some major issues, so if the discussion hinged on those, I would have had little enthusiasm for Gore too.
FWIW, I did vote for Gore and I recall being rather upset with both the result of the election and the manner in which that result was reached.
Even now, whatever disagreements I have with Obama, I favor him tremendously over either Bush or McCain as an alternative.
I'll harass Devin for it. I think it was multiple email addresses ago for both of us.
Agh, Devin says you're the most likely person to have it--it's from before yahoogroups, around October 2000, I believe. I think you can pull it up with a search for "hall monitor".
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