Why I Support Kerry, Part I

While it undoubtedly might cause great distress to some of my colleagues here and elsewhere, I have decided that I have no choice but to vote for John Kerry on Tuesday, given what I consider to be the significant and unprecedented danger represented by the prospect of a second Bush term. I explain some of my reasons in this entry, of which this is an excerpt:

It is a profound indictment of the media's general inability to think that while most pundits maintain that bin Laden's reemergence"makes it difficult for Kerry to keep hammering Bush" about his failures in the"war on terror," they simultaneously believe that fear of terrorism make well ensure Bush's reelection. The message seems to be: we all know that bin Laden's reappearance will terrify people so much that they will mindlessly vote for Bush, in a kind of Pavlovian response, but it would be beyond the pale for Kerry (or anyone else, one assumes) to mention this overwhelmingly significant fact.

And then the same pundits complain that political debate in this country is on a level that would embarrass most five-year-olds. They have permanently lost the right to complain in this manner: most media commentators are the five-year-olds leading the parade of stupefyingly meaningless puerility.

While we're on the subject, may we please put to bed permanently this debate over whether Bush"let bin Laden escape" at Tora Bora? He did, and there should be no doubt about it anywhere -- not, that is, for any observer who is honest about the matter. Exhibit A: Peter Bergen's brief but comprehensive recent analysis. I remind you that Mr. Bergen knows a thing or two about terrorism: he is the author of the best-seller Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden. He is CNN's terrorism analyst and has written for such publications as the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and The New Republic. I also remind you of part of his article about the disaster represented by our invasion and occupation of Iraq (and much more will be found in the earlier entry where I excerpted more of the article)....

UPDATE: Here is Part II of this essay, wherein I detail some of the more atrocious aspects of the Bush administration's record thus far, and examine the philosophical implications of some recent remarks by Tony Blair.