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03/11/2004 Archived Entry: "Chickens coming home to roost"
Chickens coming home to roost
You can't mistreat people and expect continued support. Sooner or later, people start to say no.
When the Bush campaign asked James McKinnon to co-chair its veterans steering committee in New Hampshire - a job he held in 2000 - the 56-year-old Vietnam veteran respectfully, but firmly, said no."I basically told them I was disappointed in his support of veterans," said McKinnon, who served two tours in Vietnam with the Coast Guard. "He's killing the active-duty military. ... Look at the reserves call-ups for Iraq, the hardships. The National Guard - the state militia - is being used improperly. I took the president at his word on Iraq, and now you can't find a single report to back up or substantiate weapons of mass destruction."
President Bush is seeking re-election as a "war president" whose decisive leadership steered the military to victories in Afghanistan and Iraq. But as guerrilla warfare drags on in both countries, casualties mount and the Army is stretched ever thinner, many voters in or affiliated with the military are no longer saluting the commander in chief.
The failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or evidence that Saddam Hussein was in league with al-Qaida, lengthy deployments of active-duty soldiers and reservists and proposed cuts in veterans' benefits and perks to military families are threatening to erode Bush's once-strong support among military voters.
In the 2000 presidential election, absentee military ballots from overseas helped deliver the narrow margin of victory that sent Bush into the White House. So even a small defection of current and retired military people and their dependents could spell trouble for Bush in 2004.
Replies: 6 people speak up
delicious. but we have to remember, as the progressive left, NOT to delight in the loss of soldiers, the outsourcing of military jobs to mercenaries, and the like. this is a trap i feel the left sometimes approaches a little to rapidly.
Posted by yon @ 03/11/2004 12:29 PM NY
It's staggering the way Team Bush keeps smacking their base votes around. This, the illegal aliens amnesty. I guess the figure they're the only game in town for the right wing so they can afford to piss 'em off.
Just one more thing they're wrong about.
Posted by salvage @ 03/11/2004 12:38 PM NY
yon,
No delight in the loss of soldiers here. Nor their benefits (either as active or as vets), their right to leave when their time is up, their housing, their pay, or their protection.
I take this very seriously.
Bush ran on 'Help is on the way.' He has betrayed everyone in this country who wears the uniform and serves.
Posted by editor @ 03/11/2004 01:01 PM NY
Take a step back. If you wanted to "loose" to begin with, screwing your voter base wouldn't be a big deal.
Maybe loosing was already planned long before he even got the election from the Supremes.
oh yeah, and on a funny.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=slv1-&ei=UTF-8&p=most+moronic+right+wing+web+site
Did you guys do that?
Posted by IXLNXS @ 03/11/2004 01:51 PM NY
if bush loses, expect a coup (or should i say another one?) these pigfuckers aren't going to roll over for the constitution, any more than they have the past 4 years. i dont know how they are going to pull it off though. a military coup is hardly possible at this point, considering how pissed off the military is
Posted by justin @ 03/11/2004 01:59 PM NY
OT: Haiti's President Jean Betrand Aristede to visit Jamaica(you know beside Haiti)next week, for eight weeks. Will the Bush Adminstration punish Jamaica hosting Aristede so close under their nose?
Posted by Andy @ 03/11/2004 04:20 PM NY
