Here's Hoping

I dearly hope that by the next time I write you we will have managed to elect a new president.

For those of you who wondered, I am not a fan of our current president. There are a handful of reasons that I can think of off the top of my head that scream for me to get rid of him.

1) He's not fiscally conservative. This is oft quoted, but he's taken us from responsibly paying off some of our debt to record deficit spending. He's the worst advertisement for "big government" I've ever seen. Irresponsible, very irresponsible.

2) His administration has played favorites with our money instead of spending it wisely (see Haliburton).

3) He took an enourmous outpouring of positive feelings for this country from the rest of the world after 9/11 and managed turn public sentiment against us within a year. That is incredibly poor leadership on the world stage. We had the chance to work with everyone to do what we apparently weren't able to do on our own and he blew it. Innescusably poor.

4) After we were attacked he smartly struck at the attackers but didn't kill the body of the hydra. He has, in fact, stated that Bin Laden wasn't a concern. So, he turned his sights on another nation and attacked to remove another bad man -- but he did it by lying to us about weapons. (Really, why not tell us the truth?) Well, the weapons weren't there and the hydra is back. So, we didn't get the guy we actually should have been after and we got the guy we had to lied to in order to attack. Again, innescusable.

5) He, like another former president, declared a war on an abstract concept. You can't win a war on a concept. Can't be done. It's ridiculous. You declare war on a group, on a nation, on something definable, something with boundaries, not drugs or terrorism. Maybe I'd be more in favor of wars like this if they were wars on poverty or starvation or homelessness or illiteracy. Maybe, but I doubt it.

6) He's curtailed or infringed on our Constitutional Rights with this horribly misnamed Patriot Act -- and he has the gall to call anyone who doesn't back him up unpatriotic. Apparently because he thinks we'll be shamed into going along with anything under the guise of wanting to look like good patriots.

Honestly, why haven't people been up in arms about all this crap? Why are there any questions about his chances of being re-elected? I don't know. I don't get it. And I can't imagine what shape this nation would be in with another four years of him in office.

It's funny, I've never been as frustrated with a president as I am with this one. And I hope I only have to be frustrated with him for a little while longer.

None of this, I should point out recommends anyone else for the job. Personally, I know who I'm voting for -- and no, it's not a straight party ticket. There are good people on all sides. I can only hope that people aren't so mired in their own concept of "being a Republican" that they can't vote any other way. I know it may rankle you, but if you have doubt in your president it's probably because he's not very good at it. And as Abraham Lincoln said:

"Whatever you are, be a good one."

Hopefully the next president will live up to that. We can only hope because what we have now isn't acceptable.