RPaper One

Voting for president is a leap of faith. All citizens can do is mix guesswork and hope, examining what the candidates have done in the past, their apparent priorities and their general character. It's on those three grounds that The New York Times on the web enthusiastically endorsed John Kerry for president on October 17, 2004:

We look back on the past four years with hearts nearly breaking, both for the lives unnecessarily lost and for the opportunities so casually wasted. Time and again, history invited George W. Bush to play a heroic role, and time and again he chose the wrong course. The Bush White House has always given us the worst aspects of the American right without any of the advantages. We believe that with John Kerry as president, the nation will do better.

Over the last year we have come to know Mr. Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo. We like what we've seen. He has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive, not just a modest improvement on the incumbent.

We have been impressed with Mr. Kerry's wide knowledge and clear thinking - something that became more apparent once he was reined in by that two-minute debate light.

He is blessedly willing to re-evaluate decisions when conditions change. And while Mr. Kerry's service in Vietnam was first over-promoted and then over-pilloried, his entire life has been devoted to public service, from the war to a series of elected offices. He strikes us, above all, as a man with a strong moral core.

Mr. Kerry has the capacity to do far, far better. He has a willingness - sorely missing in Washington these days - to reach across the aisle. We are relieved that he is a strong defender of civil rights, that he would remove unnecessary restrictions on stem cell research and that he understands the concept of separation of church and state.

He has always understood that America's appropriate role in world affairs is as leader of a willing community of nations, not in my-way-or-the-highway domination.

Text adapted from The New York Times on the web,  October 17, 2004. “John Kerry for President”

Tasks:

1.      “The Bush White House has always given us the worst aspects of the American right without any of the advantages.”  From the list below, choose at least 5 examples for Mr. Bush's disastrous tenure and discuss them in detail.

1.   government turned over to the radical right

2.   antiterrorist campaign

3.   misrepresentations to the American people

4.   human rights and civil liberties

5.   incompetence and inept management

6.   Supreme Court

7.   economy

8.  fiscal recklessness

9.  environment

2.     Discuss in what way Senator John Kerry might have been “a great chief executive, not just a modest improvement on” President elect, George W. Bush.

      3.  If you had the opportunity to vote, what would your criteria be to