From Donald Sensing’s blog:

Hence my challenge: If you support Kerry for president, I invite you to write a guest post for this blog explaining why. Here’s why it’s a challenge:

To be published, you must explain why Kerry is to be preferred in terms that do not simply say he’s not Bush. This is not an invitation to rage about Bush; it is an invitation to be positive about Kerry.

So I just had to send him a comment on his site:

Like the Swift Boat Vets for Revenge, here’s another attempt from the right to run away from Bush’s record. Why is the repudiation of a president’s failed policies NOT enough of a reason to vote for his opponent? I’m not falling for the bait. Agreeing to those rules is ridiculous.

If we had a parliamentarian system or viable third parties, then there might be some merit to this line of reasoning. We might have more than two choices, so we’d need to focus on which one was the best, not which one isn’t the worst. But in America, you get Republican choice vs. Democratic choice. Some call it “the lesser of two evils”. So be it. I’ll pick John “the lesser” Kerry.

If Hitler was running against Nixon, would it be unreasonable to point out the Holocaust, the SS, the empire-building, and implore people to vote for the guy who is not Hitler? Or would I have to come up with the positive reasons I’d be voting for Nixon? (Note: before you flame me, I’m not equating Bush to Hitler. Hitler was legally elected and won the popular vote. Bush is no Hitler. But Bush does give me new appreciation for Nixon — I can name a few good things Nixon did.)

I don’t look at elections as a choice between which candidate I think will do a better job, except when both the candidates are not incumbents. When the race includes an incumbent, to me the election is a referendum on the policies and performance of the incumbent. This incumbent president is a miserable failure on the issues of diplomacy, war planning, job creation, economic revival, public health, social issues, and much more. But if I can’t write a line-by-line citation of positive Kerry issues framed by your notion of fair debate, I’m supposed to accept this status quo?

I find it ironic that I am commenting on a post in a blog called “One Hand Clapping” — named after a zen koan which is purposefully meaningless and logically irrefutable. Also ironic in the sense that my very refusal to join your contest on your terms will, in your mind, only serve to bolster your own misguided point (as in, “see, I told you that Kerry’s supporters are just ‘Anybody But Bush'”)

So, maybe I should just flip this logic back at you: Explain why Bush should be preferred in terms of how much worse Kerry would be. How would Kerry lose more than 1.5 million jobs? How would Kerry take us into deeper levels of federal deficit than Bush? How would Kerry lead our nation into war against some other brutal dictator who was not behind 9/11? How would Kerry go farther in justifying regime change by misrepresenting flawed intelligence on WMD’s? How would Kerry make an even better sweetheart deal to pharmaceutical companies with respect to Medicare coverage of prescription drugs? How many more covert CIA operatives and al Qaeda double-agents would Kerry expose? What is it that John Kerry’s going to do that will be so much worse than Bush?

To be eligible, you can’t tell us that Kerry’s going to let gays get married (so what, who cares?), or try to paint “sensitivity” as “giving terrorists a big ol’ hug and a timeout.” You also must cite the source of President Bush’s quotes, with no editing help for gaffes in grammar (“Is our children learning?”), pronunciation (“nu-q-lar”, “War on Terr'”), or misstatement (“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”)

“Radical” Russ

Portland, OR (where Kerry spoke to 50,000 regular folks out in the open while Bush hid in a building with 2,000 carefully-screened supporters)

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