Last modified: Wed Nov 3 22:12:38 EST 2004
As I've pointed out elsewhere, I'm not very fond of John Kerry. There's no doubt in my mind that I'll vote for him in the November 2004 election, because nothing could be worse than another 4 year of George Bush. Still - I think the Democratic Party can, and should, do better.
My distaste for Kerry comes from living in Massachusetts since 1986; Kerry have been one of my two senators since I've lived here. I've had plenty of time to watch Kerry, and I generally haven't liked what I've seen.
Kerry likes to praise fellow Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy, yet he often votes against him. A particularly notable instance of this is his vote in favor of P.L.107-243, the resolution passed in October of 2002 that authorized President Bush to make war on Iraq without further authorization from Congress.
Meanwhile, today I've decided to start keeping track of things Kerry says and does that I don't like.
[Moderator]: Senator Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person?[Kerry]: I would say to that person exactly what I will say to you right now.
First of all, I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I'm a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.
But I can't take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can't do that.
But I can counsel people. I can talk reasonably about life and about responsibility. I can talk to people, as my wife Teresa does, about making other choices, and about abstinence, and about all these other things that we ought to do as a responsible society.
But as a president, I have to represent all the people in the nation. And I have to make that judgment.
Now, I believe that you can take that position and not be pro- abortion, but you have to afford people their constitutional rights. And that means being smart about allowing people to be fully educated, to know what their options are in life, and making certain that you don't deny a poor person the right to be able to have whatever the constitution affords them if they can't afford it otherwise.
That's why I think it's important. That's why I think it's important for the United States, for instance, not to have this rigid ideological restriction on helping families around the world to be able to make a smart decision about family planning.
You'll help prevent AIDS.
You'll help prevent unwanted children, unwanted pregnancies.
You'll actually do a better job, I think, of passing on the moral responsibility that is expressed in your question. And I truly respect it.
[Moderator]: Mr. President, minute and a half.
[Bush]: I'm trying to decipher that.
My answer is, we're not going to spend taxpayers' money on abortion.
New York Times columnist David Brooks has written a column critical of Kerry's comments on the Varela Project, a petition calling for free elections in Cuba. Kerry characterized the petition, which has collected signatures from over 30,000 Cubans, as "counterproductive".
In a speech today in Portland, Oregon, Kerry attacked Bush on gasoline prices (see New York Times article for details). Kerry's web site says that "Gasoline prices are at an all-time high, having risen 11.5 percent since George Bush took office..." Kerry also suggested that the Bush administration should stop purchasing oil for the Strategic Pertroleum Reserve (SPR) to help bring down oil prices.
First off: gasoline prices are not at an all-time high when you account for inflation. In fact, gasoline is currently selling at about 2/3 the real all-time high (reached in 1981).
Second: The SPR is currently being filled at a rate of about 170,000 barrels/day. This isn't enough to have a major impact on oil prices.
Finally: higher gas prices are exactly what the U.S. needs. I've been saying for years that the U.S. should adopt a policy of steadily ratcheting up the price of gasoline, via taxes, until our gas prices are similar to the prices in other western countries. This would encourage the purchase (and, therefor, production) of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. While it hurts my pocketbook, I'm actually delighted that gas prices are rising.