Posted 7:56 PM by Bonnie

Tuesday Newsday Meme:

Does the past matter in this election?
Much has been made of the pasts of both major Presidential Candidates in this election. It's been questioned whether George Bush went AWOL during his National Guard service, and whether he was arrested for illegally using cocaine in 1972. The other side has questioned whether John Kerry's injuries were really worthy of his purple hearts and whether he told people he threw away his medals at a war protest when he actually only threw away ribbons.

The question is, does any of this matter, or is it just a distraction from the real issues of the war, the economy and our status in world politics?
Two days late but haven’t been checking blogs lately. Somehow life is getting in the way of blogging. Does the past matter in this election? Like any other election each side is trying to distract from the real issues and what better way than to attack their patriotism. Especially now with us at war in Iraq and Bush correlating patriotism to agreeing 100% with whatever he says or does regardless of how wrong he is. In the perfect world John Kerry could and would ignore any allegations of his patriotism and not have to counter attack questioning Bush’s own patriotism, and would stick to the issues of importance. Like “IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID” or is it “It’s the stupid economy?”

But since we are at war and Bush put us there and he questioned President Clinton’s right to be President because he protested the Viet Nam war, and he is questioning John Kerry’s right to be president because he realized how wrong the Viet Nam war was, maybe we should question the right of someone’s right who went AWOL also. He is putting our young people in danger every day and yet when push came to shove he ran. Is this leadership material? Does it matter? Yes, it matters when the pot is calling the kettle black (no pun intended regarding the word pot).
When someone is running for president of our United States every action, every thing they have ever done, thought or said should come under scrutiny. We should know everything we can about the person who will be leading us for at least four years. So, after reading what I wrote I find my thoughts going this way… we are at war, we were put at war by a president who went AWOL and suddenly, yes, of course the military history becomes an issue.

If I had any advice to give during election campaigns it would be to cover an issue and then move on to another. Don’t dwell continuously on one issue because that is the single issue that could hurt your opponent.