This has been an interesting couple of weeks. Bush won an astounding reelection and I got promoted. Almost as if the Fates were saying “Hey, we know how you feel. So here’s a consolation prize.” This happens in life, it seems. We get down about things not going our way and then they do. Thus we are today looking at the two events.

First, take heart Democrats, Liberals, and conservatives who don’t like Bush. Though John Kerry lost, we learn a valuable lesson: when you have a message that is working, don’t change it. Kerry closed a 15 point gap in two weeks by harping on the war. And when he tied the race, what did he do? He changed his focus away from Iraq. Almost as if the Democrats wanted to lose (and some have made that argument almost convincingly), Kerry shifted away from what was working to talk about what hadn’t been.

This election solved a problem for us–we now have something to run against. It occurred to me a few days after the election that we lost largely because of a rather strident adherence to a “Bush stole the 2000 election” mantra. While the candidates didn’t address this, they certainly left it to their foot soldiers. And it made our candidate look like a whiny baby. Maybe in 2008 we won’t run against the United States Supreme Court and will try to find a candidate that can answer the tough questions while returning us to a progressive, forward-looking, and ultimately hopeful party.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not at all happy with the results. Hell, anything but. Maybe someone could drop me an email and tell me why I’ve been wandering around singing “A New Argentina” since Kerry’s defeat. But it’s only four more years and this nation survived a decade of Joseph McCarthy’s HUAC and two decades of Tutu Hoover’s FBI. We shall prevail.

Now on to the promotion.

I’m an editor now. The editor. Open a magazine and find the masthead–the credits–and look at the name of the publisher. Then look immediately beneath it. That’s me. I’m the editor. It comes with a significant pay-bump and a company leash (cell phone). And it comes with tremendous pressure. I don’t know anything about outdoor living. I do know about the English language and how to be a good wordwright. So maybe the two will balance and I’ll be a good editor. It is terribly exciting but also rather daunting. I’ve got control over a 40+ page magazine. Fun stuff.

I’ll post a link to the web site when it goes live in February.

Not very many hours left. Praise whatever deity you worship, but tomorrow, America votes to elect the leader of the free world. Now my political beliefs are pretty common knowledge to all of my friends. And if the big banner at the top of the page doesn’t spell it out clearly enough, I’m voting for John Kerry. For some reason, that has come as a surprise to many of my friends. So, on this eve of the election, I think it’s about time for me to spell out my reasoning.

John Kerry is not George W. Bush.

It’s pretty much that simple. Save a Neanderthal or Hitler, I can’t think of many people who could have run that would have made me vote for “Dubya”. There are reasons for this, and I’m going to list five of them in a bit. But before I piss people off, understand that I agree with Jefferson: dissention is the truest form of patriotism.

And we have a group of men running for president that exemplify dissention.

Nader, the ultra-left wing consumer advocate is representing the Green Party. Peroutka, of whom many haven’t heard, appears on the ballots of many states as the Constitution Party candidate–complete with a platform that is as myopic as the racist views of many of his followers. There are others–but those are the two candidates who most accurately represent the two extremes. So if you don’t want to vote for Bush or Kerry, pick someone else. There are as many as 23 people running in some states. (Does anyone know if LaRouche qualified this year?)

So why not Bush?

1.) He can’t say Nuclear, America, or sylable. And I’m elitist enough to believe that the President of the United States should be able to speak coherently.

2.) Dick Cheney (and his heart condition) scares me. Haliburton scares me. And while I think that there is a more than fair chance the “Haliburtongate” scandal was and is a farcical myth, why take the chance, eh?

3.) He spent way too much time telling people what he was going to do rather than doing what he said he was going to do. Tax cuts not withstanding, he’s also lied about most of the things. He claims to be a conservative in favor of small government, yet he doubled the size of the Federal government and increased the deficit twelve-fold.

4.) Iraq. 1,300 soldiers dead in a war that he proclaimed “Mission Accomplished,” after telling Pat Robertson that there would be no casualties. (Sorry, Mr. President. I’ve listened to you tell me there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I’ve also listened to Pat Robertson tell me things. While he is tragically misguided religiously, I trust him more than I trust you. So don’t bother denying it.)

5.) On August 6, 2001, he was told about the possibility of a 9/11-style attack orchestrated by Osama bin Laden. And he did nothing. I’m not talking about the Michael Moore, hey-here’s-a-picture-of-a-file, “watch-this” thing. I’m referring specifically to Condi Rice’s testimony about the “vague” report given to the president that was titled “Osama bin Laden determined to strike within the United States.” He did nothing. The economy, national security, and social welfare of the nation suffered under his dereliction of duty. Would Kerry have done anything differently? Would Gore? I haven’t a clue. Probably not. But Bush was there and did nothing. The guilt is his.

I’m not going to tell you to go out and vote for John Kerry. But do go vote. Vote for someone. Anyone. Joni Mitchell said it best. It always seems to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. How would you like to wake up Wednesday and not have the right to vote? Go vote.