by James Glaser
March 17, 2004

I was hoping we could have all of the spring and a good part of the summer before Bush and Kerry started getting nasty in front of us. Anything either of them says now will be forgotten by the time November rolls around.

I know George has millions to spend, but I don't want to watch his commercials now. You have to know that the Media is pushing this stretch of the political season. They hear the Republicans have all that money and they want as much of it as they can get and they want it now.

There has been a lot of news about George's first three television spots and most of it has been negative. Up here in Northern Minnesota the coverage has been sparse. We don't have enough people for either party to spend much money getting our votes.

Sunday while flipping the channels I saw a Bush spot that was playing on a station with a religious program. I guess he is pumping up his base. It was the one where George and Laura are sitting there and he is telling the camera, "I know what we need to do to make the world more free and more peaceful......to make sure every person has a chance at realizing the American dream...to continue economic growth...to raise the standards at schools.....to fulfill the promise to American seniors."

Unfortunately there wasn't enough time for him to finish up and tell us what he knew and if he did know those things, he sure hasn't used any of that knowledge yet. George Bush talking about Peace is ludicrous. The man has started two wars and has sent combat troops to several countries and just last week helped over throw the President of Haiti, sending the United States Marine Corps there for the third time by our country, in the last eighty years.

I have to say that the Kerry campaign has been almost totally silent up here and I find that a real plus. Any time a candidate can keep quiet, I tend to think more of them. The only thing I have seen, is that the county DFL has endorsed John Kerry and that isn't really even news.

Sometimes a candidate can be shown to be a bumbling idiot. Listen to this. George Bush promised the voters in Ohio, where job losses have been high these last three years, that he would find some one to lead the administration in finding new manufacturing jobs. That was six months ago and people kept asking where the new "Job Czar" was.

So who does George come up with? A man who in the last three years has laid off 1,180 of his own employees from five American plants and opened a new plant over in China. Anthony F. Raimondo has told the Asian Wall Street Journal of his new plant, "It's going Gangbusters." On top of all of this Raimondo worked to elect a Democratic Senator, Ben Nelson in his home state of Nebraska, in 2000. Reports are that Senator Chuck Hagel was pretty up set with the White House when he heard that Raimondo would be the Job Czar as he was working for the Republican that was running against Nelson.

Any candidate can screw up big time like that, but not a President that has the whole Federal government working for him, Raimondo is the exact type of business owner that every working man or women in America hates. One that will trade American jobs so that he can make even more money by sending American jobs to the Far East.

George Bush should continue to play President as long as he can. As soon as he becomes "Candidate Bush," he comes down to the level of John Kerry and loses the luster that being President holds. As President, George Bush can pass any real boner off on some one else. As Candidate, he is responsible for his whole campaign.

I understand that both of these guys have to pump up their base. It is a real blessing that John Kerry doesn't have as many millions as Bush does right now or both of them would be advertising in every market till November. Remember how fast Howard Dean went through close to fifty million dollars? Well, that was only two states, Iowa and New Hampshire. These two guys are going to battle it out in about twenty two states and that is going to cost both of them a bundle. The media is starting to salivate already and that is why they are doing so much on the election now.

If either of these two candidates really loved America they would agree to give us all a break and shut down the campaign for a few months. Kerry could work as a Senator as that is his job and that is what he is taking money for.

Bush could try and get some jobs for Americans. At the start of the year, George told America he was going to get us two million jobs by November. Last month he got us 21,000 jobs.

The President has two wars going and on average nine Americans are getting wounded every day and almost two are getting killed. It would behoove him to work on getting the troops home instead of working on commercials and giving fund raising speeches. Bush already has well over a hundred million dollars more than John Kerry. How would you feel if your son or daughter was in Iraq or Afghanistan and you were watching George Bush travel all over the nation to pick up a million here or two million there?