Why I'm voting for JFK: expectations and accomplishments

[shockingelk]

George W. Bush

The "soft bigotry of low expectations" is a phrase president Bush used in both his 2000 and 2004 acceptance speeches as part of an argument for federally mandated testing. He used it to describe people who think minority students don't have the ability to succeed in school. Nobody thinks that other than racists. If there are racist teachers and school administrators, the solution is to fire them, not to give their students a test.

But our president is clearly fond of being what he may call a "soft bigot" with low expectations of himself and his policies in many areas.

Bush took advantage of the "soft bigotry of low expectations" as a blue blood member of the National Guard during Vietnam. To his defenders, the core of the issue isn't whether Bush may have been allowed to work on a political campaign instead of showing up for duty. Nor is it that he was suspended from flying for failing to take a physical. They dispute neither of those claims. Instead, the boiler plate response is, "Bush was discharged honorably" - to Bush and his vocal supporters, it doesn't matter that less may have been expected of him.

Each year, the Bush administrations' budgets presented to Congress expect less from his fiscal policies. In 2002, after the terrorist attacks and stock market plunge, they expected their economic policies to produce a $61 billion surplus in 2005. In 2003, they lowered that expectation to a $208 billion deficit. Their budget presented in 2004 lowered the expectation further to a $363 billion deficit.

Bush expected his "tax cut package" to produce 306,000 jobs each month starting in July 2003. To date, his policy of tax cuts has fallen short of accomplishing his expectation by over 2.6 million jobs. Yet he and his administration are trumpeting a 144,000 increase in employment in August as a success - less than half of what they expected to see every month. And less new jobs that it takes to keep up with population growth. They give themselves a passing grade because they've lowered their expectations.

What the administration expected to find in Iraq doesn't have to be enumerated. But yet, they're pointing to a country experiencing frequent suicide car bombings as evidence of their success in making the world safer from terror tactics.

I want a president that achieves what he expects to do. It's time to fire this one who has a habit of not living up to his own expectations and presenting his failures as successes.

It's time to put John Kerry - a man who holds himself to his expectations - at the helm.

John F. Kerry

No matter how much money his opposition spends trying to confuse and discredit Kerry's legislative career, it remains a career of high expectations and distinguished accomplishment - one that Massachusetts voters have endorsed by electing him to the Senate four times straight.

Kerry's work has included authoring or sponsoring 57 bills and resolutions that his Senate colleagues approved.

In 2001, Kerry authored the Nurse Reinvestment Act, which aimed to help deal with our nation's shortage of nurses. Despite the fact it didn't pass that year, he continued to push his colleagues to act on the problem. He succeeded in enacting his legislation when his language was incorporated into the Nurse Reinvestment Act of 2002, which is now law.

During the first several dozen hours after the 9/11 attacks, John Kerry co-authored the Aviation Security Act which was approved by the Senate within the week. He also was a member of the Conference Committee that allowed the Senate and House to work out the differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill.

During his career in the Senate, Kerry has successfully taken part in the fight for campaign finance reform, expecting campaigns to run on ideas more than large contributions from special interests.

He expects better pay and benefits for the the military, veterans, and other governmental employees we depend on and his voting record shows it.

In the years after the fall of imperial communism and during the era of $600 toilet seats and $400 hammers, he stood along side the George H.W. Bush administration by supporting responsible reductions in military spending - a principled position that we have seen twisted by the lens of his opponents.

John Kerry's work has allowed Congress to improve many laws including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Clean Air Act. He has worked to preserve and protect the environment, provide opportunities for small business and entrepreneurs, protect Social Security, guarantee the civil rights of all, reduce the national debt through fiscal responsibility, harness the power of technology and American innovation, and keep our nation strong and safe.

While accomplishing these things, Senator Kerry has consistently voted "no" to raise his own pay.

The Kerry Future: 1,000 Points of Hope

As President, John Kerry expects to launch new alliances in the struggle against militant Islamists, improve the security protections we have at home, create the type of economic swell that lifts all boats, improve the quality of teachers and education in general, bring down the costs of prescription drugs and health care costs and put our nation on the path towards energy independence. And a lot more.

It's an ambitious and optimistic vision. John Kerry believes in America.

Few but John Kerry himself expected him to win the Democratic primary until he proved to America he could do it by succeeding in the first several primaries. And few expected any Democratic challenger to be running a tight race with the sitting president. But we're seeing it with our own eyes. I believe in John Kerry.