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The Dallas Morning News just can't shake its love for Shrub. Even while it admits that Shrub has not been forthright with the public, it still takes a chance to show that for them the only choice is Shrub! Idiots! I am glad I stop taking this freeper rag years ago. Only problem it is the only newspaper in Dallas.
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Straight Talk = Strength: Public needs realistic assessments of Iraq
04:30 PM CDT on Sunday, October 10, 2004
We don't expect President Bush, less than a month before Election Day, to deviate from his generally upbeat message about the Iraq war.
Ordinarily, it's cheering to see the commander in chief radiate such confidence in the Iraq mission. Yet given the deteriorating situation there, that optimism seems increasingly forced. Those who share Mr. Bush's belief in a bright future for Iraq may be mindful of the Bible's definition of faith: "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
The guerrillas have stepped up their grisly attacks on Americans and Iraqi civilians, and U.S. forces have so far been unable to stop them. It is far from clear that Iraq is capable of self-rule without collapsing into civil war. "Freedom is on the march," the president keeps saying, but daily dispatches from the front tell of widening chaos. History may vindicate Mr. Bush, but at this moment, it appears that the center is not holding.
The gap between the administration's rhetoric and Iraq's reality offers John Kerry and John Edwards an opportunity that they've seized with both grasping hands.
Last week, the Democrats intensified attacks on Mr. Bush's credibility, telling voters that the president cannot or will not level with the American people on Iraq. Reports that the Bush team ignored prewar advice from its own experts that did not fit its agenda seem only to bolster the Kerry-Edwards line.
But the plain fact is this: Mr. Kerry has nothing better to offer.
His Iraq "plan" prescribes staying the course, doing pretty much the same things the Bush administration already is doing. The only substantive difference is that Mr. Kerry claims he can talk the Europeans into taking a more direct role in Iraq – something the French and German governments already have ruled out.
In fact, Mr. Kerry would arguably handle the situation worse than the president, because of his unclear and changing position(s) on Iraq. He voted to authorize the war, refused to approve additional funding for it and now calls it a "colossal error."
How do you successfully complete a difficult mission that you don't believe in?
Yet Mr. Kerry also has said that "failure is not an option" in Iraq. He's right, which is why his muddle-headedness worries us more than Mr. Bush's overconfidence.
Circumstances may force Mr. Bush to learn that candor is a sign of strength in leadership. Even the current issue of the conservative magazine National Review takes a sober, detailed look at what went wrong in Iraq, and concludes, "That because Bush is the best thing going on national security makes it all the more imperative that he get better."
We agree. Inconstancy of judgment, however, seems a facet of Mr. Kerry's character that's never going to change.
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