Bush Wins

[Nubian]

Originally posted by preciousjeni
With the members of the armed forces (from every account I've heard) saying that they would've considered resigning had Kerry been elected, but they support Bush, I don't quite understand the concern.

Seeing as how you can't just resign from the military, I don't see how thats possible. Secondly, I can only speak for my command, but the higher ranking officials (with the exception of myself) tend to be Republican, while enlisted personnel and younger servicemen lean further to the left. I think when people say the military backs Bush and did not vote for Kerry, that statement is a little skewed, I know many, many young service men and women who voted for Kerry. Again just my .02 cents.

[valkyrie]

Originally posted by Nubian
Secondly, I can only speak for my command, but the higher ranking officials (with the exception of myself) tend to be Republican, while enlisted personnel and younger servicemen lean further to the left. I think when people say the military backs Bush and did not vote for Kerry, that statement is a little skewed, I know many, many young service men and women who voted for Kerry. Again just my .02 cents.

I've heard the same thing from quite a few people in the military.

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by Nubian
Seeing as how you can't just resign from the military, I don't see how thats possible. Secondly, I can only speak for my command, but the higher ranking officials (with the exception of myself) tend to be Republican, while enlisted personnel and younger servicemen lean further to the left. I think when people say the military backs Bush and did not vote for Kerry, that statement is a little skewed, I know many, many young service men and women who voted for Kerry. Again just my .02 cents.

Of course you can resign once you've served your initial years.

[Shortfuse]

Originally posted by FAB*SpiceySpice
LOL are you talking about P Diddy?

I agree, that vote or die crap was pretty STUPID.

I don't think attempting to get the younger population to be more involved in the voting process is stupid. You should be patting him on the back for his efforts.

Some people

[Rudey]

You know the funny part? I didn't hate Clinton. I didn't despise Clinton. On a few things I even liked him. I would have voted for Daschle. I would vote for quite a few Democrats.

Now they voted for it but didn't start it? I don't understand what that means.

As for Haiti, we don't have a never-ending supply of military. What should we do? What did we do? What did other countries do?

As for your "colleagues are fighting and dying everyday"...well that is war and whether it was Iraq, Haiti, or France, they'd be fighting and dying every day in a war.

I didn't ask you to love Bush. I didn't ask for blind loyalty. I don't think anyone does. But what I do find ridiculous is people thinking that Kerry is a saint. He voted for the war. The war is no longer something that separates them. He said he would go to war even without WMD. His wife is a billionaire, declared 5 million in income (impossible), and only paid 12% taxes on that for about 600K - this while her husband is busy talking about taxing the wealthy.

They are one in the same on many things. They are corrupt. Each tried to spend as much money as possible to buy America and only one succeeded.

-Rudey

Originally posted by Nubian
While Kerry and Edwards may have voted in favor of the war...Bush started the war. A baseless war where my colleagues are fighting and dying everyday. Yet when we (the military) had the chance to go to Haiti and provide some real aid to people who needed it, we didn't go...maybe they didn't have enough oil for our President. Maybe it wasn't in accordance with his Daddy's agenda...Either way, I do agree that we all have an opinion and mine is that any man who would sacfrice loss of life, wreck the economy, and place such fear of terrorism in the average American that he skates through another election does not deserve to run a country. 3 yrs after 9/11, we still have not located Osama, the person mainly responsible, but people are saying this man (Bush) has kept us safe!?! How?! If you had been raped or assaulted and the police still hadn't caught the culprit 3 yrs later, would you applaude them for keeping you safe? I respect your opinion and that of all Republicans, but I reserve my right to dislike Bush regardless of the fact that he is our President...I don't do blind loyalty.
Asking me to like Bush is like asking you to like.... Clinton.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Nubian
Seeing as how you can't just resign from the military, I don't see how thats possible. Secondly, I can only speak for my command, but the higher ranking officials (with the exception of myself) tend to be Republican, while enlisted personnel and younger servicemen lean further to the left. I think when people say the military backs Bush and did not vote for Kerry, that statement is a little skewed, I know many, many young service men and women who voted for Kerry. Again just my .02 cents.

The latest numbers in the news were that military personnel were voting 2:1 for Bush in Iraq. Are they all higher ranking personnel?

-Rudey

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Shortfuse
I don't think attempting to get the younger population to be more involved in the voting process is stupid. You should be patting him on the back for his efforts.

Some people

You really think he was doing it to get people to vote?

-Rudey

[ASUADPi]

Since this thread is about Bush winning I would love to hear Bush supporters thoughts on something I read yesterday.

On MSNBC I read that Bush is going to be "attempting" to get those Kerry supporters back on "his side".

I would actually like to hear y'all's takes on that.

I personally have a list of about 10 items that he would have to "do" before I even think about supporting him. But see I don't think he will do any of these things. (FYI all the things on my list are very public things, ending the war for example is number one on my list).

If you are a Bush supporter I would really like to hear how you think he could actually acheive this statement.

[KSig RC]

Originally posted by ASUADPi
Since this thread is about Bush winning I would love to hear Bush supporters thoughts on something I read yesterday.

On MSNBC I read that Bush is going to be "attempting" to get those Kerry supporters back on "his side".

I would actually like to hear y'all's takes on that.

I personally have a list of about 10 items that he would have to "do" before I even think about supporting him. But see I don't think he will do any of these things. (FYI all the things on my list are very public things, ending the war for example is number one on my list).

If you are a Bush supporter I would really like to hear how you think he could actually acheive this statement.

He's not going to be abl to realistically 'win' all these people - but there are Republicans and moderates who left the fold. Some preliminary steps:

-Ending the war would be suicidal - can you imagine what would happen in Iraq if we left? I dig that you're personally involved, but unless we want to turn Baghdad into Escape from New York, we'll need to continue (and get better). The geopolitical assumptions for starting the war were solid, but he'll need to overcome the massive public response to his ill-fated decision to push the WMD angle b/c it was widely accepted.

Bush will 100% need to show improvement, and an actual strategy (including an eventual exit strategy) to get people on his side.

-Showing his economic plan is correct - we know the Republican plans are more sound in general, but can he realign w/ the massive wartime budget? Can he still get social security etc on track, and push his reform plans through? etc etc

-Being careful with 'faith-based' initiatives - these smacked wholeheartedly of pandering to the party, and I'd doubt anything comes out of them. However, getting overzealous could lead to severe backlash, especially with the midpont elections looming.

-Finally, he needs to be as accessible all the time as he tried to be during the campaign. He will never be a top-flight public speaker, but his improvements need to carry through so that his actions can carry some weight, and not just look like (*insert derogatory comment here*) to Kerry supporters.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by ASUADPi
Since this thread is about Bush winning I would love to hear Bush supporters thoughts on something I read yesterday.

On MSNBC I read that Bush is going to be "attempting" to get those Kerry supporters back on "his side".

I would actually like to hear y'all's takes on that.

I personally have a list of about 10 items that he would have to "do" before I even think about supporting him. But see I don't think he will do any of these things. (FYI all the things on my list are very public things, ending the war for example is number one on my list).

If you are a Bush supporter I would really like to hear how you think he could actually acheive this statement.

Ummm neither Bush nor Kerry were just going to "end the war".

As for how he's going to get people to come together? I am not completely sure.

-Rudey

[FAB*SpiceySpice]

Originally posted by Rudey
You really think he was doing it to get people to vote?

-Rudey

Thank you Rudith.

SO SORRY for not being nit picky and 150% clear in my original post. What I meant was the VOTE OR DIE slogan was stupid. P. Diddy used that as a publicity stunt and everyone knows it. Nothing wrong with that but I wouldn't attribute every young person voting b/c they saw P. Diddy raid the house on the Real World wearing that stupid shirt.

Why am I even arguing about this, with a person I don't even know or care about?!

I need a nap.

[Nubian]

Originally posted by Rudey
The latest numbers in the news were that military personnel were voting 2:1 for Bush in Iraq. Are they all higher ranking personnel?

-Rudey

No, they are personnel who were willing to share their political affiliation with poll-takers. Just for clarification, I know the military as a whole leans right...I'm not disagreeing with you there, I'm saying that the military is percieved as very heavily Republican, and from what I've seen from my sailors, thats not the case. You'd be surprised how many are Democrats. Military personnel come from all different social and racial groups, the fact that we are in the military is not the sole factor in political affilitation. I think factual numbers would prove that the military is almost as split as the actual election itself.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Nubian
No, they are personnel who were willing to share their political affiliation with poll-takers. Just for clarification, I know the military as a whole leans right...I'm not disagreeing with you there, I'm saying that the military is percieved as very heavily Republican, and from what I've seen from my sailors, thats not the case. You'd be surprised how many are Democrats. Military personnel come from all different social and racial groups, the fact that we are in the military is not the sole factor in political affilitation. I think factual numbers would prove that the military is almost as split as the actual election itself.

OK I don't disagree that the military is diverse, but it still does lean right, mostly because it gets its supply of recruits from certain areas and those men and women either come in with certain beliefs or pick them up while serving.

I don't think it's just so easy as you make it when you guess on how many men and women would vote a certain way. Given my demographic, I should not be voting Republican but I am registered as one.

-Rudey

[ISUKappa]

I agree with Rob. Bush isn't going to be able to "win" over a majority of the Democratic party because the differences in ideology are just too great. But I think he can get some back on his side, or at least show the party that he is making an effort to understand them and work towards a common goal.

Now, honestly, I don't believe anything is going to happen on the national level with a Gay Marriage amendment ban. Likewise with Roe v Wade. I think they were more election strategy than anything and he currently has bigger things to worry about. But that's just my opinion, so take it as you will.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by ISUKappa
I agree with Rob. Bush isn't going to be able to "win" over a majority of the Democratic party because the differences in ideology are just too great. But I think he can get some back on his side, or at least show the party that he is making an effort to understand them and work towards a common goal.

Now, honestly, I don't believe anything is going to happen on the national level with a Gay Marriage amendment ban. Likewise with Roe v Wade. I think they were more election strategy than anything and he currently has bigger things to worry about. But that's just my opinion, so take it as you will.

It's funny. Clinton told Kerry to say that he opposes gay-marriages and wants a constitutional ban so he could win over the South and places like Ohio. Kerry made the wrong move.

-Rudey