Quote:
Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
It's about which candidate has the guts to do what it takes both on a foreign and national policy level (however unpopular) to protect our nation.
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With all respect, because you know that I love you like the sister who starred in Woody Allen movies that I never had, the notion that Democratic candidates don't have the "guts" to do what it takes is the biggest stinking pile of horseshit it's been my displeasure to smell lately. It's a political pose that has nothing to do with policy choices and everything to do with getting elected. Republicans sell this bullshit because it works, not because it's "unpopular." Until recently, Republicans liked to remind people that it was Democrats who'd gotten the United States into every war this century. George McGovern had the guts to climb into a B-24 and fly combat missions that lots of people didn't come home from. John Kerry had the guts to volunteer for duty in Vietnam when Dick Cheney was getting student deferments and George W. Bush was skipping out on flying jets over the Gulf of Mexico so he could work on Republican presidential campaigns. Say what you will about either one's failings, but lack of guts are not among them.
Ronald Reagan had the guts to act in movies during World War II, and then to "do what it takes" to protect the country by invading Grenada and withdrawing troops from Lebanon after a barracks full of Marines got killed. George H.W. Bush had the guts to fly combat missions in the Pacific during WWII, but he got painted as the wimp and Reagan got painted as the warrior, probably because Reagan pounded on a table at the right time and said, "I'm paying for this microphone, Mr. Bush." It's all about the pose.
So now you have wannabes like Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani outdoing themselves to prove that they'd have the guts to torture prisoners, while the GOP has decided that the war hero who actually withstood torture isn't their man. And Republicans are swooning over Fred Thomson because he can play a general in a movie.
How many Americans will die in Iraq because George W. Bush doesn't have the guts to face the fact that he screwed up?
