The big deal at the Democratic Convention last night was the speech given by John Edwards. I didn’t watch it, mostly because I am growing tired of the “extreme makeover” that is occurring in Boston this week. Seems like the Democrats have spent the entire week trying to look and sound like Republicans on National Defense. Missing, however, from Mr. Edwards’ speech last night was any mention of the 19 year record of John Kerry in the U.S. Senate. Not a single word on his voting record on defense issues and budgetary matters concerning the military and intelligence. There’s a good reason for that, as you all know: He’s voted against anything related to strengthening our military and intelligence communities for his entire Senate career.

Last night, Mr. Edwards said this:

We will double our Special Forces, and invest in the new equipment and technologies so that our military remains the best equipped and best trained in the world. This will make our military stronger so we’re able to defeat every enemy in this new world.

Does he really expect us to believe that after 19 years of rejecting every budget request for new and improved weapons systems for the military that now John Kerry is going to invest in the military? As far as I am concerned, actions speak louder than words, and John Kerry’s actions during his 19 years in the Senate speak plainly and clearly to me: The military can expect nothing from a Kerry Administration when it comes to ensuring they are equipped and ready to go.
Mr. Edwards also had this to say about the response to the 9/11 attacks:

When John is president, we will listen to the wisdom of the September 11 Commission. We will build and lead strong alliances and safeguard and secure weapons of mass destruction. We will strengthen our homeland security and protect our ports, safeguard our chemical plants, and support our firefighters, police officers and EMT’s. We will always use our military might to keep the American people safe.

That’s a nice laundry list that also happens to be exactly what the Bush Administration’s response was. I guess it’s easier to promise something when it has already been done. There is no detail here of what a Kerry/Edwards Administration would do differently, and why it would be better than what the current administration has done. Again, there is a reason for that: They could not do anything differently that would make any noticeable difference in how the Nation responded.
Now, I know you all caught this, right:

So now you ask how are we going to pay for this? Well, here’s how we’re going to pay for it. Let me be very clear, for 98 percent of Americans, you will keep your tax cut — that’s 98 percent. But we’ll roll back the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, close corporate loopholes, and cut government contractors and wasteful spending. We can move our country forward without passing the bill and the burden on to our children and grandchildren.

There you go, they’re going to raise taxes. He says that they’ll only raise taxes on the top 2 percent of taxpayers. Well, like I said previously, I think actions speak louder than words, and Kerry has voted to raise taxes on all Americans 350 times. Again, do you really think that a 19 year trend is suddenly going to change? I wouldn’t bet on it.
All in all, Mr. Edwards did just about what I expected last night. He made many, many promises that sounded good to several groups, but failed to tell anyone anything specific about how he and Mr. Kerry will make good on those promises. As I have said repeatedly in this post, there is a reason for that: They have no idea whatsoever how they are going to deliver any of these things, because they haven’t figured out what the polls say is the most popular way to do it. They haven’t stuck their finger into the wind yet. Another possible reason is because they have no intention of doing any of this stuff at all, that they’re going to push there own hidden, liberal agenda once elected. That may sound crazy, but the fact that the most liberal member of the Senate and the fourth most liberal member of the Senate have tried to look like conservatives on a host of issues should tell you that they’re trying to hide something. Frankly, you should be worried about this and wonder what it is that they’re hiding that is so unpopular. Answer that, and your decision on Election Day will make itself.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2004 at 1:16 pm by Nick, and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.