Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

We have now seen a debate between the incumbent president, George Bush and the challenger, John Kerry and the incumbent vice-president, Dick Cheney and his challenger, John Edwards. One thing is clear. The vice-president, is the power running the government.

George Bush was installed as the president in 2000 but he demonstrated by his performance in the first debate that he is uninformed and unqualified for that position.

In the vice-presidential debate, Dick Cheney displayed his command of the facts and figures, or at least his ability to spin figures so they sounded like facts.

With his dour, dry, delivery that mentioned the word "terror" 31 times, he continued the administration policy of using fear to manipulate the American people.

At the end of the debate, each had 2 minutes to give a summary. This is where the difference between the two men was the most evident.

In his closing statement Cheney stated, "Now we find ourselves in the midst of a conflict unlike any we've ever known, faced with the possibility that terrorists could smuggle a deadly biological agent or a nuclear weapon into the middle of one of our own cities."

Edwards described a scene from his childhood, watching his father at the kitchen table learning math from the TV so he could get a better job at the mill. Offering a vision of hope Edwards said, "You have the ability to decide where America's going to go. John Kerry and I are asking you to give us the power to fight for you, to fight to keep that dream in America, that I saw as a young man, alive for every parent sitting at that kitchen table."

For four years, many people have wondered who was behind the curtain playing the part of the great Wizard of Oz, but we don't have a wizard. Who we have running this country are the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. One has no heart and one has no brain.

With Kerry and Edwards, we'll be able to click our heels together and say, "I want to go home", back to the America that offers the bright light of hope instead of the dark gloom of fear.

10-6-04