A Dozen Reasons NOT to Vote for George W. Bush

1. He could not have possibly handled 9-11 worse than he did.

I'm sorry to redirect you right away, but I've actually collected 20 specific ways Bush failed us.
Please take the time to read them. It's important to pay attention to this.

2. He is not a "nice guy"

I put this up a number two because so many people have looked at the facts about this President, have some doubts, but are still planning to vote for him because he is "likable," or looks like the "kind of guy you could have a beer with." Personally, I agree with Jon Stewart of the "Daily Show," who pointed out during the 2000 election that he would prefer to have his president be the "designated driver."

Everyone pretty much agrees that up until his early 40's, Bush was a rich, intellectually lazy frat boy born into wealth and power, who failed at and got bailed out of every business he tried, received a drunk driving conviction, and quite likely did not fulfill his National Guard duty and also quite likely used a fair amount of cocaine. Unfortunately, his born-again credentials make his back history a prodigal son story for many, so none of this well known aspects of his personality worries his supporters . . . that was in "the past."

Luckily, there are still some great examples about what W. is really like in real life today. The most damning of all, I think is this video clip which shows W., on the David Letterman show during a break. When the shows producer came on stage to discuss something with Letterman, George Bush leaned over and grabbed the back of her sweater and used it to wipe his glasses off. Who does something like that?

Perhaps the same guy who shocked conservative CNN commentator Tucker Carson during an interview for Talk Magazine. When Carson asked him about making the decision to execute prisoner Karla Faye while Governor of Texas, he said he was "anguished," but then went on to mimic the woman's final pleas for life, "'Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, 'don't kill me.'" Carson, a fan of Bush, went on to write "Ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel, even for someone as militantly anti-crime as Bush."

3. He very decisive, and his decisions have been very wrong.

I can't put it any better than William Slaletan wrote for this article in Slate:

"From foreign to economic to social policy, Bush's record is a lesson in the limits and perils of conviction. He's too confident to consult a map. He's too strong to heed warnings and too steady to turn the wheel when the road bends. He's too certain to admit error, even after plowing through ditches and telephone poles. He's too preoccupied with principle to understand that principle isn't enough. Watching the stars instead of the road, he has wrecked the budget and the war on terror. Now he's heading for the Constitution. It's time to pull him over and take away the keys."

4. He has left all of our children behind

I can't put it any better than my mother who is has taught public elementary school over 20 years:

"Bush's "Leave no Child Behind Act" sounds great as a sound bite, and I believe that well meaning senators like Ted Kennedy jumped on board because too many of our children have indeed fallen through the cracks over the years. We are a unique country in our attempt to educate ALL of our children, no matter what their background or needs. To that end I feel ours is a noble goal. The problem lies in the fact that in order to educate ALL children, many schools need additional money.

It is my understanding that the Federal Funds in the NCLB Act are directly tied to the success of districts in meeting each child's needs. How do they determine if a district has met their needs? Well a standardized test of course (one size fits all for each and every individual child with his/her unique gifts and shortcomings).

Now this is where Bush's plan becomes, in my opinion, punitive. They set standards in each state, and base funds on the results of these standardized tests. Schools with the most needs ie: English as a Second Language students (ELL),more racially diverse population, free and reduced lunch students, and special education students tend to do more poorly on these test than say children in a wealthier homogeneous schools. As a results Bush's plan CUTS money to the most needy schools, and also lists them publicly as FAILING our children. (In Texas, when Bush was governor, they put signs up in front of such schools, and allowed parents to pull their children out. When this became a problem, because there was no place to put all these relocated students, Bush CHANGED THE REQUIREMENTS so that more schools appeared to meet the standards.)

Today each state sets it's own standards. Washington State's are high, higher in fact than many states including Texas. Much of the adopted Standardized WASL test is not age appropriate and would be difficult for most adults to pass. This makes us appear to have done quite badly compared to other states. Teachers who are working harder in the "troubled" schools are actually accused of not doing enough to get these kids (with little help from parents, government, or administrators I might add) up to the "standard". If a student does not reach the mark in only one of the 4 areas, they are considered FAILING.

To add to this frustration for teachers, so much of our time is spent meeting "unfounded mandates". In other words, preparing for this standardized testing and changes needed in schools are required, but not funded by the government. Teachers like myself tend to get defensive, but the public as a whole looks at Bush's NCLB Act and think,"Now There is a president who really cares about the education of our children", when in fact, he couldn't care less."

5. He won't own up to mistakes

"I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn't [sic] yet . . . I don't want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I'm confident I have. I just haven't, you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one," - George W. Bush when asked in a April 13, 2004 press conference to name his biggest mistake.

See how Bush admitting his mistakes might have helped the son of Diane Davis Santoriello!

The Center for American Progress has handily put together a list to help Bush remember his top 100 mistakes.

6. He's not good under pressure

"Some run to where the action is, others hesitate." - Tucker Carlson, referring to George W. Bush on 10/03/04 Real Time With Bill Maher.

Spin it any way you want but the first debates with Senator Kerry showed the President as highly unprepared and easily flappable. The seven minutes blank stare after hearing about the second plane crash on September 11th and subsequent freakout hiding on Air Force one rather than returning to the White House to address a jittery nation is another case in point. Kerry on the other hand? In addition to trumping the debate, proved himself as a calm and confident commander on the swift boats, and even saved the life of Republican Senator Chic Hecht by quickly coming to his aid when he was choking, performing the Heimlich maneuver. The only slightly similar story in George W. Bush's history was when he choked on a pretzel.

7. He's failed at everything he ever tried, including running the country

After running for Congress and losing in 1978, Bush used money from his trust fund to start Arbusto Energy. Another $50,000 investment was given by James Bath (who was also the sole US representative for the Bin Laden family). When Arbusto went "el-busto,"it was bought out by Spectrum 7 Energy, and Bush was named CEO and director of Spectrum. In 1986, Spectrum was near collapse, Bush sold it to Harken and became the director there. Even though Harken stayed afloat through accounting tricks (think Enron), and was a small company who had never drilled offshore or abroad, it beat out larger energy companies to obtain exclusive rights to the oil off Bahrain and the Persian Gulf. Oddly enough, this happened with President George Bush Sr was in charge of such a decision. In 1990, W. Bush sold two-thirds of his Harken stock (netting over $3 mill) a week before Harken stock value dropped 60% (wait, isn't Martha sitting in jail for that?) In addition to substantial evidence that W. Bush knew about the stock drop before he sold, he also managed to file 8 months late with the Securities and Exchange commission. Ok, this oil company stuff is boring though, what else. Letsee, um he purchased the Texas Rangers, and raised taxes on Arlington citizens to fund a new baseball stadium and then traded Sammy Sosa. Then he became Governor of Texas, winning against incumbent Anne Richards by starting a "whisper campaign" that she was a lesbian. Governor Bush promptly made Texas the most polluted state in the US by relaxing anti-pollution laws for corporate polluters. He cut taxes, bankrupting the state. He set record for most executions by any Governor in American history, and ran for President with claims about the "Texas Education Miracle," which later turned out to be based on false numbers. (In truth, Texas is has the largest dropout rate of any state in the nation.) Then he became President, and we all know what happened after that.

He used his father's name to get into Yale, used his father's connections to get out of going to war, and use his brother to "get Florida" and then didn't even actually win the election. Man, even when this guy loses, he wins. Too bad that doesn't work for the rest of us.

Thanks to "The Bush Hater's Handbook by Jack Huberman, and Topplebush.com

8. He's a flip flopper

Wait, isn't that the other guy? Well, actually this gets back to my argument about the Republicans charging the other side with the very things that they actually do. He's against creating an Office of Homeland Security, no wait, he's for it. He's against a 9-11 Commission, ok wait, he's for it, but not until AFTER the election. Oh, you're going to have one anyway, well then Condi Rice can't testify in front . . . wait, public outcry huh? Well, I guess she can go then, but it doesn't mean I have to listen to your recommendations . . . ok, well I'll do most of them, except that Intelligence Czar one, no wait, I'll do that too. Torture is ok, no wait, what am I talking about? Of course it isn’t I'll renew the assault weapons ban, no wait, I'll just ignore it and let it lapse, that will let make the NRA happy . . .

I could go on and on, but CBS sums it up better than I can Bush's Top Ten Flip Flops. This article also includes a link to Kerry's Top Ten Flip Flops which you can read to decide whose are worse.

9. His his intellect is lazy, and his math is fuzzy

I could go on and on with this one, but I'm also a bit lazy. Here are two quickie examples:

Our President is actually proud that he doesn't read newspapers, and instead of staying up into the wee hours reading up on policy reports like Clinton did virtually every night, the guy is in bed for his beauty sleep by ten (this is casually mentioned in Richard Clarke's book, Against All Enemies.)

He also said when he was running for president the first time that "the bottom end of the economic ladder receives the biggest percentage cuts." The truth?

"The top 1 percent (those with annual incomes over $373,000) would pocket 45 percent, once the tax cuts were fully in place. The top 5 percent (over $147,000) would receive nearly 53 percent. The top 20 percent ($72,000 and above) would bag almost 72 percent. On the other end, the bottom fifth ($15,000 and below) would see 0.8 percent of the "relief." The lower 40 percent ($27,000 and less) could expect to share 4.3 percent. The middle fifth ($27,000 to $44,000) would be handed 8.4 percent. By the way, Citizens for Tax Justice estimated that Bush and his wife, Laura, would personally save about $100,000 a year on their taxes." -From "The Lies of George W. Bush" by David Corn

10. Have the last four years been good to you?

$477 Billion Deficit. 8.2 Million unemployed. 43 million without health insurance. 1.63 million Americans declared personal bankruptcy in 2003. Over 4,000 families grieving their loved ones loss of life in the 9-11 terror attacks, and in combat operations in Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Yup, it's been a real wild ride, and I'm starting to get pretty sick.

11. Hate liberals? nobody brings them together like this guy.

If you are a staunch member of the GOP, the last thing you want is for Liberals to wake up, band together and get a spine. Because there are more of them, and they are a lot more of them that are right-brained, meaning that they are already coming up with creative solutions to the issues that ail them. Oh sure,they'll protest like always, but they have also started powerful grassroots organizations like Moveon.org, they are blogging the freeways,and celebrities are even throwing benefit rock concerts. Liberals are fighting mad, and are for the first time willing to look over small ideological differences to work together. We've got P.Diddy, Drew Barrymore, Bruce Springsteen, Ben Afleck . . . actually, we've got almost all of the celebrities (ok, I'll give you Britney Spears and Don King, no please, take them). So if you hate liberals, and if you are thinking of voting for Bush you probably do, none of this is good news for you. Better not to vote at all, live through a few years of a Kerry presidency and Dems get docile again.

12. I got all the way to #12 without bringing up the "Bushisms"

I know, I know, the poor guy probably has some form of dyslexia that he can't control, but that doesn't mean we should ignore his inability to speak. Would you elect someone with Turrets Syndrome as president? Or as Bill Maher put it on his 10/03/04 show "Real Time,"What is this longing for a "regular guy" in the highest office? A President should be exceptional. John Kerry, for all his flaws, is an exceptional person. And George Bush? Well, he's a 'special' person."

Bush certainly has some special linguistic maneuvers, affectionately called "Bushisms." And man, are there ever a lot of them . . . enough to fill, well, about three books is what they are up to now.

Like donuts, everybody has their favorite of course. Personally, mine is the sublimely simple and beautiful: "The problem with the French is they don't have a word for entrepreneur."