[clue-talk] it's over!

[David Rudder]

That's absolutely valid and my characterization of the issues glossed 
over the effect of the war.  I over-simplified to make my point about 
mandates.  The mandate on the war, coming out of the 2004 election, was 
"stay the course".  "Stay the course" is a crappy example of a mandate.  
I mean, it *is* a mandate, in my eyes, but it's not a good one for 
making the point.

David L. Willson wrote:
> [...] GWBush won 2004 on "character issues".  Obama 
> won on "policy issues".  The voters clearly voted for Obama because of 
> his economic plan, and to a lesser extent his plan for Iraq.  He has a 
> clear mandate on those issues.  GWBush had a clear mandate on abortion, 
> gay marriage, etc., which he failed to address.
>
> David, I think I disagree with you here.  One, I think GWB won 2000, not 2004, on character issues.  People like me were voting against Clinton's successor (happened to be Gore, could've been anyone) because of Clinton's lack of integrity, and for GWB because we believed that he was as a real Christian.  I also believe that he did put some effort into stopping the abortion train-wreck during his first term, but it was hard to notice behind the furor of the "war on terror".  In 2004, GWB got re-elected because we were in a war, not anything to do with values or Christianity, because some knowledgeable someone said "you never change horses in the middle of a race, or Presidents in the middle of a war", ~and~ because the "swift boat veterans for truth" utterly devalued John Kerry's military record, ~and~ because commander-in-chief's don't do Botox or $400 haircuts.
>
> I could be wrong, but that's how I saw it.
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