Bush's worst nightmare: the Americans he punk'd

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

I called a friend I haven't talked to since March of 2003 tonight. She lives a few blocks over and our kids go to school together. Last time we really talked politics, over a year ago, I found that she was an Independent who voted for bush I in 88 and Clinton in 92 and 96. Voted for Gore in 2000. Thinks Clinton was one of the great American presidents. Pretty liberal on social issues. Believes in balanced budgets. So I felt I found a bit of a kindred soul in this suburban Dallas hell.

But in March of 2003, I was increasingly disturbed with the run-up to a war I felt was unjust, immoral and unjustified. I felt it was a diversion from rebuilding Afghanistan and finding OBL.

So we talked in March 2003 and I was shocked to find that she was talking all kinds of smack about "we should support President Bush right now" and "wasn't he great after September 11th?" She was even considering voting for him in 2004. I was GOBSMACKED. We had a polite, but somewhat tense discussion and beyond social niceties when I saw her, didn't talk much since then.

Well I called her tonight because she has family in Florida and I wanted to see how everyone was doing.

Oh. My. God. She was cursing bush's name, cursing his family, cursing the day he was born. She said she felt well and truly "punked" on the Iraq war. She said it makes her SICK to think she even considered voting for "the son of a bitch." Um, wow. Said she didn't know how much of the debate she could stomach because of his "ugly face."

I asked her if she knew anyone else who felt hornswaggled by the whole Iraq war thing and she said "hell yeah, I work with tons of people who feel the same way. He SCARED THE SHIT out of us and we believed him. He's the freaking president! I never thought a president would LIE to get us into a war! And now look at the mess over there!"

She ended by saying "you were right, I don't know how you knew, but you knew." I said I didn't have a crystal ball, it just stunk to high heaven, the whole thing.

I wonder how many other voters feel punked about the Iraq war. bush better hope not too many, but I think otherwise.

[Not Me]

1. When I think about all the groups that bush* has punk'd:

-environmentalists
-teachers
-gays and lesbians
-seniors
-military families, especially reservists and guardsmen
-middle class workers displaced buy outsourced jobs
-US citizens who are of non-christian faiths
-students who are likely to be facing a draft

and when I add these people to the majority to voted for Gore in 2000, I get a real warm, fuzzy feeling it's going to be a landslide.

Your story is being repeated all over this country.