November 1, 2004

Dear George W. Bush:

I really wanted to vote for you on Tuesday.

I remember how on September 11th, 2001, you stood in front of the camera at Barksdale Air Force base
in Louisiana and said "The resolve of our nation is being tested today. But make no mistake, we will pass
this test."
    I don't know if there was another day in my life where I was quite as scared as I was that day. But with
those words, I felt confident. I also felt grateful, that it was you, and not Al Gore calling the shots.
    I've made no secret that I thought your father was one of the worst Presidents ever. I voted twice for
Bill Clinton and in the crazy election of 2000, I voted for Al Gore. Ronald Reagan's main mission as
President was to bring about the end of the Cold War. With some help from a progressive Soviet
government, he did. Bill Clinton's mission was to boost the economy. He had a booming economy for
most of his time in office. Both Reagan and Clinton were reelected.
    After 9/11, your mission became clear. It was to fight and destroy terrorism. You got off to a great
start. You stood before Congress on September 20, 2001, and you laid it down for the nation and the
world. There was no flowery or fancy language, it was one very simple message.
You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists.
Who could argue with that.
    And into Afghanistan we went. In less than 2 months, the Taliban was overthrown and many Al-Qaeda
camps in Afghanistan were destroyed. They had rained hell on our city, you rained hell on them. It was
only a matter of time before we had Al-Qaeda destroyed and Osama Bin-Laden's head was on a platter.
    I believe it was March 2002 when I first read about it in either Time or Newsweek, about your
administration's plans to go after Saddam Hussein. Back in 1998, he had expelled UN weapons
inspectors. Who knows what he had done in those 4 years, what kind of weapons he had. There were
implications that linked Saddam to Al-Qaeda. I wasn't so sure. Bin-Laden had as much use for Saddam
as he did for America, having had his butt kicked by us in 1991. I also wondered aloud if this was more
about people in your administration wanting to make up for mistakes made in 1991. Dick Cheney, Colin
Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice were all involved in your father's administration. Maybe they
saw this as their chance for payback.
    I was mixed. I was afraid that fighting Iraq would take resources away from fighting Al-Qaeda. I was
afraid that we would lose focus on what should have been priority number one, which was killing Bin-
Laden.
    I was assured by all your team members that this wouldn't happen, and I put my doubts behind me.
The protesters made this easier. People in Europe burning American flags. Canadians vowing to
withdraw from Afghanistan. Hollywood losers, forced to put their hatred of you and their apologies for
America on ice after 9/11 came out blowing double their smoke. I felt like they left me no choice. What
was I going to do, listen to you or Barbara Streisand? Pray that we would liberate Iraq and destroy any
weapons that Saddam Hussein had, or hope the US lost the war as Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders
was hoping for?
I stood behind you.
    And this was in March of 2003, which wasn't a very happy time for me, my family and friends. One
friend was laid off.  Then another friend left her job and was struggling to find another. Then a couple of
my co-workers left because of money, and they were struggling to find work. Some people I knew who
had worked in companies for over 30 years, who just a few years away from being able to leave on their
own terms, were being let go, their jobs shipped overseas.
    Then it started happening to people in my family. It was getting closer and closer to home. Then I had
to switch jobs. As I was leaving my old job, a lawyer from another firm on our floor said "I've never seen
so many people struggling at once." That was a powerful sentence. This was a guy who lived through
Vietnam, and the crisis' of the late 1970's. These were turning into bad times. Not only were paychecks
getting smaller, benefits were disappearing. And prices were going up. A quart of milk, a box of cereal, a
cab ride, a train ride, a gallon of gas....
A gallon of gas?
    One of the reasons we were told this war in Iraq was necessary was because we couldn't have a
madman in control of oil prices. Well, now that we had overthrown said madman, why were the prices
going up? Used to be every once in a while, the price would go over 2 bucks. Now, it may never get
under that again. Why is that?
    Maybe because the war in Iraq was not what we were told it was going to be. It was going to be a war
that would liberate a people that would be so grateful that they would shower our troops with wine and
roses. It was going to be a war that would uncover caches of unconventional weapons, some that could
destroy us. And it was going to be a war that would be fought with enough troops to win, without losing
sight of Osama Bin-Laden.
    Instead it is a war where were are being showered with bullets and grenades from insurgent terrorists
who hate us, (along with other terrorist groups), and it is a war where every inspector whether hired by us
of the UN has concluded there was no imminent threat. Now, you want to argue that by ejecting
inspectors back in 1998 and constantly shooting at our Air Force jets protecting the no-fly zones, that
Saddam led us to believe that he had WMD's, well I can go along with that. And if you want to say that
you honestly felt that there were weapons there, and that all these people who say you're a liar are left
wing quacks, well I believe that too    to a degree.
    But just because you made an error in judgment, doesn't get you off the hook. When the Mets
brought Roberto Alomar in to play second base, they thought they were getting a Gold Glove All-Star.
Instead they got a washed up has been. Nobody thought that he would stink as bad as he did, but he
did. And the man who made that deal lost his job.
    Now some might think that a sports metaphor makes light of a bad situation. But I wanted to put it in
terms that you, a former baseball owner would understand.
    But that's not even the worst thing to me. The weapons problem is one that can be debated.
    What can't be debated is that Osama Bin-Laden is still alive, Al-Qaeda is still operating, and the threat
of another attack on our nation is still very real. People like to say that 9/11 happened on your watch, but
I could never understand how you were expected to do things in 8 months that Bill Clinton couldn't do in
8 years.
    But that argument goes out the window now. You've had 3 years, and support and military power that
Clinton didn't necessarily have. And you've come up empty.
    You get blamed for alienating the world. Again I believe that the world had it in for us long before you
stepped foot in the White House. In fact, for calling our so called friends like France and Germany on the
carpet and exposing them, I give you credit. Making them look in the proverbial mirror is one of the
things I think you've done right.
    This country is as divided as its ever been. Many people blame you. I do not. At least not totally. I put
alot of the blame on the far left, which I believe controls most of the media. To me, its the Al Franken's
and Jeanine Garofolo's of the world that has as much to do with the rifts in this country than anyone in
your administration. These are people who believe that the US owes the world an apology for being
stronger, smarter and better than the they are. Most of Hollywood falls into this category too. These
people make me ill. For that reason alone, I wanted to vote for you.
But I can't.
    For the few things you've done right, there are too many things gone terribly wrong. There are still too
many people out of work. Tell me unemployment's down and I'll show you people who have given up
looking for jobs and hoping for some miracle. Tell me about people going back to work, and I'll show
you people who did so for less money and no benefits. Tell me about tax cuts, and I'll show you rising
costs for things that middle class on down needs but can't always afford, like a full tank of gas.
    Tell me that the mission in Iraq is accomplished, and I'll tell you about the men and women that died
there since you landed on that aircraft carrier in that stupid flight suit. Tell me that 3/4 of Al-Qaeda has
been captured or killed, and I'll show you that only two of them are in the top ranks, and none of them
are named Osama Bin-Laden.
    Tell me why I have to align myself with people like Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon. Tell me why I'm
going to have to listen to a chorus of "I told you so" even if I think that most of the theories against you
are loads of sh-t.
    I'll tell you why, because I don't listen to what those schmucks say. I don't need to. I just need to look
at my surroundings and ask the same question your hero Ronald Reagan asked the country in 1984.
Are you better off than you were four years ago?
I'm afraid not.
Not with our economy still in shambles. Not with prices that go up while wages go down. Not with health
care skyrocketing out of control so that small businesses and individuals can't afford them.
    Not with no end in sight to the conflict in Iraq. Not with Osama Bin-Laden still at large and poised to
strike again. Not with politics as usual.
    Last week you said about John Kerry "How can a man who doesn't have all the facts be Commander
in Chief?"
When I vote on Tuesday, I'll ask myself the same question.
And not vote for you.

I'm Wild Bill
and I approved this message.