The Indianapolis Star endorsed President Bush. That isn't much of a surprise, nor are the first half dozen paragraphs of the endorsement, which claim, with some truth, that "Kerry is running close with the president mostly because he is not the president."
Then things get interesting:
Most Americans, along with editorials in this space, supported the president's decision to go to war against Iraq.That's when the president's vulnerabilities began to surface. He accepted flawed intelligence about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, and when the truth became known, stubbornly refused to acknowledge it. A little more than two months after the war started, he flew to an aircraft carrier in the Pacific and gave Americans the impression the war was all but over. More than 940 of the nearly 1,100 American casualties in the war have occurred since the "Mission Accomplished" sign was displayed on the flight deck of that aircraft carrier.
The task of rebuilding Iraq was poorly planned, and the lack of a coherent approach has been sharply criticized by thoughtful stalwarts of the president's own party, including Indiana's senior U.S. senator, Richard Lugar.
The president adamantly refuses to listen to those who question him. He has insulated himself from voices he doesn't want to hear and suggests that those who question his Iraq policies are playing into the hands of the enemy.
Meanwhile, the president, who now labels John Kerry the master of flip-flops, played politics with steel tariffs, presided over an economic policy that is producing huge budget deficits, and expanded Medicare into one of the more expensive social programs ever known. He has mocked his critics, and in the process has proved to be a divider rather than a unifier, feeding the growing national tendency for Americans to work against, rather than with, each other in developing solutions to common problems.
In spite of this, the editors urge:
This is not a time to take a risk on untested and poorly defined leadership. It is not the time to change course on the economy. It is not the time for new, expansive and expensive government programs and regulations.It is time for experience and resolve, which is why George Bush should be re-elected for a second term. Without a re-election facing him, the president can move to do those things he said he would do in his first presidential campaign:
He can work to unify the country. He can listen to and respect people who disagree with him. He can acknowledge errors, and what he will do to remedy those mistakes. Accomplishing those things are what true leaders do. They are things this president must do during his second term.
President Bush had four years to unify the country, to listen to and respect people who disagree with him, to acknowledge errors and remedy mistakes. He didn't, and we have no reason to believe he would do so in a second term.
