William Reardon’s Blog

Awesome: Ebay auction for Michael Moore’s relevance.

Expires in 7 days, after which it’s gone.

I watched Meet Joe Black tonight.

I’m not sure if I should publicly admit this, but damn, I like that movie.

I’m voting for George W. Bush tomorrow.

This may all be moot since I think Kerry will win, but I’m a little surprised. Though a registered Republican and avowed conservative I’m surprised because when it comes down to it, I don’t really want to.

I don’t really want to vote for him because while I don’t believe that Bush lied about the WMDs, I do believe he should held accountable for their absence. I don’t really want to because while I don’t consider Iraq a miserable failure, I do think it could be going better. I don’t really want to because while I do admire some of his characteristics, he’s not the type of leader I want to follow.

Democrats, why didn’t you give me someone I could vote for?

This probably will have been the easiest election ever for you to have gotten my vote. My impression is that there are a lot of other conservatives in a similar position. It wouldn’t have taken much. There was no delusion that the Left would throw out the whole of their platform, but hell, a moderate Democrat, articulate & direct, a clear vision with a solid plan for Iraq would have been all I needed.

But who did you give me? Kerry.

Not that I mind the DNC powers that be sabotaging Dean’s campaign & his lead. From a Republican viewpoint, that guy was almost as good as Nader.

Not that I have a problem with Kerry because of the Swift Boats. I live in California. Not a lot of point in running their ads here. (I actually question how much impact ads like Swift Boat or MoveOn ads have at all, but I digress.)

Not that I think Kerry is a “flip-flopper.” Okay, well, he is. But so is just about every politician, including Bush. It’s part of being a politician: when you’re not kissing babies you’re taking their lollipops.

At the same time, Kerry has done a miserable job communicating his vision on Iraq. Vague general hand-waving has been done, but nothing to make me go “ah-ha!” Yes, Kerry says there where mistakes made. With that, you have my attention. But you have to keep going after that. You can’t tell me there where mistakes and stop. Tell me what you think the mistakes where. What you would have done differently. How you will do things differently. As a testament to how confusing he has been on Iraq, I’ve yet to have two Kerry supporters give me the same answers when asked about Kerry’s views on the war.

In his defense, I can understand why he may intentionally ambiguous about it, and quite possibly, it may be very well what ends up winning him the election. But it’s not going to get my vote.

Nor is Kerry particularly compelling as leader. The most positive thing most of his supporters I know have been able to muster is “Well, he’s better than Bush.” Which, to them, pretty much anyone had out of the gate. In setting the bar so low — “Anyone but Bush!” — that’s exactly who they got.

And just anyone isn’t good enough for me to flip-flop.