rock...we live in a situation that we have never before experienced in our history. On 9-11, how we dealt with the world changed dramatically, and all things considered I feel the President has done about as well as can be expected.

Can somebody do it better? I'm sure there is somebody out there who can...but John Kerry is most definitely not that individual. And the reason for that is simple...the guy lacks the backbone to take a stand on ANY issue, particularly those of national security.

How many times has he gone back and forth on Iraq? "I voted for the $87 billion, before I voted against it"??? Are you kidding me??? What kind of doublespeak is that?

I would argue that if John Kerry is elected this November, we stand a better chance of being obliterated by terrorists than if Bush gets another four years. There very well could be somebody out there who can do it better than Bush...but that somebody most certainly is NOT John F. Kerry.

Don't worry about the spelling...everyone makes misteaks sometime.

I usually don't do this but here goes.
1st How do we know what anybody would have done as president. How did we know that this was going to happen? Are you positive that Kerry wouldn't of attacked? Because if you are you are the best mind reader in the world!
2nd Heinz is being attacked for not talking. It seems the republicans attacked Hillary for saying her mind. Guess this is going to happen no matter what.
3rd So no one can rethink and restudy their position (hard for the republicans to do, they seem to act first and then look for redemption or claim patriotism) what they have done? Times change and so do people's thoughts. Kerry has been around long enough that if you wish you can find a contradiction. Don't tell me this never happens to anybody. I think Bush decided he was an alcoholic and needed to Change.
4th Every time Bush is questioned about his past or his decisions he wraps himself in the flag and attacks by calling people unpatriotic. When will this end?
Lastly Would Kerry have done anything after 9-11? I think Yes! But he would of ensured that we had the forces, the partners, and the a real reason to go in. How many times can you change your mind on why we went in?
This is a new time. I think in my mind from what I have read and studied (I don't trust people telling me what to believe and do) that we would be better off with someone else in charge and will think his own thoughts and make his own decisions.
Guess this is one man's opinion.

I guess it all depends on which philosophy you take. If you're a liberal then you like higher taxes, big government, gun control, socialist policies and a weak stance on national defense. There's a reason why Kerry is so wishy washy-his base is so divided that he needs to take every side of every issue in order to appease all the beauracratic special interest groups pulling his chain. I've previously stated why I wouldn't vote for this man. He is certainly out of touch with the values that I believe are most important to this country. Sure GW isn't and hasn't been perfect but I sleep much better at night knowing that Bush, Cheney and Powell are leading this country. I can't say I would feel the same knowing that a senator who voted for a nuclear freeze when we were winning the cold war, wanted to cut $6 billion from intelligence after the first WTC bombing, opposed nearly every weapons system we're using in Iraq right now, voted for the war but against funding the troops in Iraq and proposed letting Iran continue their enriched uranium program under UN guidance was leading the United States. That being said here's 20 questions I would ask Kerry if I was moderating the debate tomorrow night.

1. The Bush campaign maintains that you spent 20 years in the Senate with no signature legislative achievements. What do you consider to be the five most important pieces of legislation that you've authored?

a. What's the most important piece of legislation regarding intelligence you've authored?

b. What's the most important piece of antiterrorism legislation you've authored?

c. What's the most important piece of health-care legislation you've authored?

d. What's the most important piece of education legislation you've authored?

2. You'd agree that on paper, Dick Cheney's experience and qualifications dwarf those of your running mate. Why would John Edwards make a better president during the war on terror than Dick Cheney?

a. It's been widely reported that John McCain was your first choice as running mate. If true, why did you prefer Senator McCain to Senator Edwards?

3. Earlier this year you told Tim Russert that you'd release all of your military records, yet you've failed to do so and you refuse to release your Vietnam journal. Why shouldn't the public infer that the contents of these documents would undermine your credibility or otherwise damage your candidacy?

a. When will you release the documents?

4. You've stated that you believe that life begins at conception yet you voted against the ban on partial-birth abortions. At precisely what point is a life worth protecting?

a. Is there any limitation on abortion (waiting periods, parental notification) for which you'd vote? If so, what?

5. You've promised to repeal much of the Bush tax cut and while in the Senate you voted to raise taxes an average of five times per year. If current economic trends remain largely unchanged during a Kerry presidency, would you seek additional tax increases?

a. How would you raise taxes and what are the highest marginal tax rates that you'd support?

6. You opposed the 1991 Gulf War even though Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, had invaded another country, and France and Germany had supported the war. In the current conflict no WMDs have been found, France and Germany oppose the action, and Saddam hadn't invaded another country. Yet you recently stated that knowing what you know now, you'd nonetheless authorize the use of force even though you voted against funding it (and now he's switched positions again). Could you please reconcile these positions?

7. You acknowledge meeting with representatives of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong in Paris in 1970. Afterward you urged Congress to accept the North Vietnamese proposals. Please explain how this wasn't a violation of the Logan Act and, if you were still in the Naval Reserves at that time, how it wasn't a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibiting unauthorized communications with the enemy.

8. In several speeches before black audiences you've stated that a million African Americans were disenfranchised and had their votes stolen in the 2000 presidential election. There are no official or media investigations that support that statement. What evidence do you have to support the statement and if you believe a million blacks had their votes stolen, why haven't you called for criminal prosecutions and congressional investigations?

9. Do you dispute the National Journal's assessment that you're the nation's most liberal senator? If you do, which senators do you consider to be more liberal and why?

10. Why did you propose cutting the intelligence budget by $6 billion in 1994?

11. As president, would you nominate anyone to be either an attorney general, FBI director, or CIA director who had been a leader and chief spokesman for a group that had discussed and voted upon a plan to assassinate U.S. senators (even if the proposed nominee had opposed such plan)?

12. You have consistently stated that you "never, never" attended the November 1971 Kansas City meeting of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which a plan to assassinate six pro-military U.S. senators was discussed. Several newspapers reported that when confronted with FBI surveillance reports, your campaign "all but conceded" that you were in attendance , but claimed that this was a mere "footnote in history."

a. Were you there?

b. Did you discuss the assassination of U.S. senators? What did you say?

c. Did you vote upon such a plan? How did you vote? Were any similar plans discussed by your group at any time? What were they?

d. If the plan was voted down, what steps did you take to insure that supporters of the plan didn't carry it out anyway?

e. Especially considering that this took place in an era of political assassinations and assassination attempts (Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., George Wallace, etc.), did you report the discussion to any law-enforcement authorities? If not, why not?

f. When did you resign from the organization?

g. Do you dispute reports that you continued as a spokesman for the organization for more than a year after the Kansas City meeting?

h. If this was a mere footnote in history why have you repeatedly and vehemently denied you were there?

i. Did your campaign, as alleged in several newspaper accounts, attempt to get a witness to change his story about your attendance?

13. You have criticized the Patriot Act. What portions would you repeal or amend and why? What evidence do you have of any abuses of the Patriot Act?

14. As president, what would you do about Iran's emerging nuclear capability?

15. During your eight-year tenure on the Senate Intelligence Committee you missed more than three fourths of all public meetings. It's also been reported that you have skipped or delayed receiving intelligence briefings during the campaign. Why should the public believe that you're serious about this issue?

16. What do you think is appropriate punishment for guards (and their superiors) found guilty of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib? Do you believe they should be stripped of command and receive dishonorable discharges and prison time?

17. On May 6, 2001, on Meet the Press, you stated that you had committed "the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers" in violation of the Geneva Convention. Specifically, you said you burned villages and "used 50-calibre machine guns, which [you] were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people."

a. Who ordered you to use 50-caliber machine guns on people?

b. How many people did you shoot with the 50s and how many of them were killed or wounded?

c. When and where did these shootings occur?

d. What other atrocities did you commit and when?

e. Which village(s) did you burn down and when?

f. Were any of your crewmembers present during the commission of any of these atrocities?

g. Did you order them to participate in the atrocities? Did they follow your orders?

h. Why were there no reports of these atrocities? Did you order your crew not to report them?

i. Are any of these incidents described in your Vietnam journal? If not, why not?

j. Did you observe thousands of (or any) other troops committing atrocities? When, where and what kind? Did you report them? If not, why not?

k. In light of your admitted atrocities, if Abu Ghraib guards found guilty of abuse should receive prison time and be stripped of command, why do you believe you should be considered for commander-in-chief?

18. Who among the justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court would be a model for your nominees to the federal bench? Why?

19. In a speech before Drake University Law School you characterized U.S. allies in the war in Iraq as "some trumped-up so-called Coalition of the bribed, the coerced, the bought and the extorted,..." Do you maintain that Great Britain has been bribed, coerced, bought, or extorted? What about Italy? Japan? Poland? Please specifically identify those members of the Coalition that have been either bribed, coerced, bought, and extorted and the officials who were bribed or bought.

20. You told George Stephanopoulos that you had a plan to get out of Iraq but refused to provide details. Would you consent to having your secret plan privately evaluated by an independent, bi-partisan panel of military experts who could report the plan's merits to the electorate without divulging the details?

a. Would you also consent to privately revealing to an independent panel the names of the foreign leaders who secretly support you so that the panel can confirm your story to the electorate?

b. Ditto regarding the leaders whom you say have secretly told Senators Biden and Levin that you must win?

Obviously, there are a lot more questions Social Security, health care, etc. Certainly there are tougher questions and those more artfully crafted. This is just a start. Feel free to add your own.

Whoa.

I guess the "Boxers or Briefs" question a la MTV's Choose or Lose program a decade ago would be a little too soft a question for you to ask, eh, Ross?

Lucky for Kerry you're not one of the panelists Thursday night. Dude would probably melt down trying to double-talk his way out of some of those questions.

As I am young and probably uneducated on all the facts of this election, I do know that many people feel that Bush Screwed us in the ground by going to war, but the fact remains that he did start this war and no matter how much it hurt us, we need to start what we finished or the lives that were taken over there, were taken for no reason. So I say give Bush a chance to finish what he started, things can only go up from here!!!

I agree with you, L-Fan, except that Bush didn't START this war...this war was started at around 7:30 a.m. central time on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 when Bin Laden's thugs hijacked four planes and crashed into the WTC, Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field (which would have been the White House were it not for some brave passengers).

Bush hasn't been perfect in the start of World War III (and that IS what it is)...but had Al Gore been elected president in 2000, we'd have been in a lot worse shape than we are right now. And if Kerry is elected Tuesday...well, considering his disdain for the military and his inability to stand firm on an issue, I'd rather not want to think about that possibility...

Michael Moore and Co. seem to want to make light of "four more years of the same" with Bush. Considering the eight we endured with the horny pathological liar we had in the Oval Office befre GB2, I think we can live with four more years of our current leader, thank you verrah mush.

Let's also not forget that it is costing us so much on the ground in Iraq because Clinton slashed the budgets of the military and our intelligence agencies. Yes, that money and technology was invested here at home, but it led to an over-inflated stock market in the late 90s that was bound to come crashing down at some point. Look at all the internet businesses that started, made millions (even billions) then went belly-up in about a ten year span. Clinton was good for our economy?

Oh and NWI I didn't even get started on Clinton being a pathological liar, hahaha

Oh, you HAD to bring up Internet business start-ups that went bust and bring back a financially-painful memory....ARGGGGHHHH.

I was an editor for a start-up and was to be paid $3K a month -- they got to about $18K before filing Chapter 11 and leaving me high and dry. I'm still bitter about that experience...to say nothing of the debt I encountered as a result.

The only thing Clinton was good for was fodder for comics and keeping certain dry cleaners in Washington DC in business, if you know what I mean (and I think you do...).

And the scary part is...American voters might be insane enough to put him back in the Oval Office, where he would once again serve as the First Husband to Queen Billary...only this time SHE would be the one spending "quality time" with interns in the White house.

Oh the horrah...

You know I just now looked at this thread and read every post, WOW!!!
I have a senior in college and a senior in high school, and I must tell you this has been a very interesting year for more than 1 reason. Having said that it has been enjoyable to listen to as well as answer to our young ADULTS we call our children.
Both of them came thru the public school system and have listened to economics, history, poli sci, and a host of other teachers that have given them their (???????) views, they both have taken a interest in this election even though one of them is still only 17 and legally cannot smoke, drink, vote, or go to war.
They both have listened to the main stream media and had some of that (???????) mindset in them. As the conversations had progressed I asked them to get off the mainstream and listen to another point of view or two, they have done this and to my astonishment after a very short peroid of time they did the old John Kerry Flip Flop.
Yes that is right they went from Kerry to GW in a matter of several weeks, several of the trigger issues were Social Security, Health Care, Kerry's voting record, but the BIG thing was WWIII, they both stated we do not think nor do many of our fellow students feel that Kerry has the BA!!S to take on the tough issue of not only US security but the worlds security.
I am proud of those young people and they are proud of themselves to have asked the ?'s and went out and formed opinons all by themselves and not been afraid to tell others of those opinons.
VOTE ON TUESDAY, it is no only your right but your duty.

Thanks Kids

The oldest started asking questions about the election and had to break it down to terms a 6 year old would understand. Now if that doesn't make you think I don't know what will.