Democrats need to be introspective: Kerry was a lousy candidate

This was an election the Democrats should have been able to win easily. Everything favored the Democrats. The economy is bad. A vast sea of Americans are out of work. We are running a $500 billion deficit. We are stuck in an endless war in Iraq, where our brave soldiers are dying without reason every day.

We have a President who takes nutty positions, such as his opposition to stem cell research, a technology which has the potential to save millions of lives if it can be developed. The best that could be said for our president is that he is a reformed alcoholic.

In short, any reasonable Democratic candidate should have been able to win easily. More than that, the Democrats had a lot of good candidates to chose from. They had Hillary, Dean, Edwards, Lieberman and several others, all of whom would have been acceptable.

Instead, the Democrats selected a candidate who has two small problems:

1. Kerry is a liar
2. Kerry is a fraud

The Democrats should have thought about and realized this. I for one would have voted for any reasonable Democrat, all the way across the spectrum. I would have voted for Hillary, for Dean, for Lieberman, even for Edwards. All of the Democrats would have gotten my vote, except that I could not vote for Kerry.

Kerry is a fraud because he has based his entire political career on his claim to be a decorated war hero. Yet, the men who served with him, who stood on the same boats with him, who knew him personally, almost without exception have said that Kerry is a liar: Kerry did not do the things he claimed that he had done. Kerry did not command the boats he said that he had commanded. Kerry had never been to places where he said that he had been. Kerry claimed that he had served in Cambodia, but those who had served with him said that Kerry had never been there.

The Democrats tried to pass this off as just politics, but I was convinced at an early date that Kerry's claims were entirely fraudulent. I am sure that there must have been others who felt the same way.

I was a strong opponent of the war in Vietnam and Kerry's anti-war stance would have easily gotten my vote, until I realized that Kerry was just a fake. Kerry was using the tragedy in Vietnam as an issue to advance his own political career, while lying about his own actual involvement.

Kerry lost at least some anti-war votes while also losing ALL of the pro-war votes. Vietnam veterans to a man voted against Kerry, as did veterans of the War in Iraq (which includes my daughter).

In addition to being a fraud, Kerry was also a liar. For example, Kerry said that if elected he will negotiate with North Korea and will end North Korea as a nuclear war threat.

Perhaps some young voters who do not know history believed this line, but those of us with longer memories know that since before 1950 North Korea has been ruled by a fanatical regime that has caused millions of their own people to die both by war and by starvation. Nobody can make the guarantees that Kerry made of being able to negotiate a settlement with North Korea.

Similarly, Kerryfs claims of being able to solve the War with Iraq were fraudulent. Kerry said that he was going to send 40,000 more troops to Iraq. All this would have accomplished is it would have gotten more Americans killed. Kerry made the especially laughable statement that he would get other countries to send more troops to Iraq to replace our troops who would be brought home. Everybody can realize that no country is going to be willing to send their troops to fight and die in Iraq in place of ours.

I had several debates with pro-Kerry voters on this issue. They all said that they supported Kerry because he would bring our troops home from Iraq. When I pointed out that Kerry had never said that but had said instead that he was going to send 40,000 more troops to Iraq, they each replied that Kerry was just saying that for political reasons and that really he was not going to do that. Rather, he was going to bring the troops home, they said.

I tried to point out that they were saying that they were going to vote for Kerry because he was lying about his actual position. My message did not get through. I did not convert anybody.

In short, the bottom line is that the Democrats selected as their candidate a man who is tall, good looking, a good speaker, and a good debater, but who is also a frequent liar, who has based his entire political career on a tissue of frauds.

For this terrible mistake, we are stuck for another four years of Richard Cheney as President.

Sam Sloan


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