One more thing...

And then I'm done with politics for the night. I'm gonna watch Biden's speech, then sit back and watch The Wire, maybe play a little Soul Calibur. But here is John Kerry's speech from the convention, and it's thirteen minutes of awesome. Where was this guy in 2004? This guy I would have been excited to vote for, as opposed to just voting for him because he wasn't George W Bush.



Which brings me to the real point of this post. Bush's approval ratings are, as we all know, in the toilet. The majority of Americans have come around and realized that they made an enormous mistake re-electing him in 2004. Many of them want to be forgiven for this grievous error, let off the hook by those of us who have been speaking out against Bush and his policies since 2000, to be told "Hey, it's OK, you were tricked." Rather than being told "Hey, the writing was on the wall, what was wrong with you that you didn't see it?"

I'm willing to do that. But here's the thing... you need to admit that you were wrong then, and you're wrong now about McCain. Don't tell me in 2010 when our economy is further in decline, when we're in an ill-advised war with Iran, when our troops are being spread even more thin in Iraq and Afghanistan with no hope of accomplishing their mission because it doesn't even make any sense. Don't tell me then that you're sorry you voted for McCain. Tell me now, when those words still mean something.

If you voted for Bush/McCain in 2004, and you regret it... you owe it to this country to vote for Obama/Biden in 2008. You owe it to everyone who has died on the Bush/Cheney watch from 2004-2008, whether it's due to poverty at home, enemy bullets in our poorly-chosen war in Iraq or natural disasters in New Orleans that the federal government was ill-equipped to deal with due to rampant cronyism and corruption.

You. Owe. Us. And if you're not willing to own up to that, then I'm afraid I can't take your recognition of the failures of Bush/Cheney as anything but empty words that you don't mean. If you sincerely believe you did wrong in voting for Bush and Cheney, then you need to really do your homework and make sure you're not about to make the mistake with McCain.

Because here's the thing... you are.