Just to make my position clear on all of this: I'm not at all pleased with the way either candidate is spinning.
(I know... you're all dying for me to make my position clear. It's been eating at you like a grub. "When is Jim finally going to clear things up so I can get back to my life!" you moan to coworkers and spouses.) Spinsanity.com is one of my favorite sites, but it's like self-flagellation. Reading how politicians are twisting important issues beyond recognition is difficult. That being said there seem to me two very distinctive "styles" to the spin. The Kerry campaign most often "spins numbers". Most of the time the numbers are "correct" (in a sense) but misrepresented or misapplied. For example Kerry's repeatedly (and wrongly) stated that Iraq war has cost 200 billion dollars when that figure is actually the total cost of both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Kerry campaign has presented information from draft proposals as fact in the case of Social Security benefits. The campaign has also misrepresented figures about job losses, the number of daily attacks in Iraq, subsidies to drug companies and many others. The Bush campaign tends to "spin words". For example Kerry never claimed that other governments would gain approval power over our military, but the Bush campaign has taken the quote "global test" completely out of context and added some assumptions to make it seem so. They claim that Kerry's health plan constitutes a "government takeover" and that Kerry claimed that terrorism was "just a nuisance" - all distortions of statements made by Kerry. Common to both campaigns is an underhanded representation of voting records. A vote not to cut taxes is presented as a vote to raise taxes. Even a vote in favor of a tax cut smaller than one presented by the other party is tallied as a vote to increase taxes. Tiny riders inside enormous budget proposals and omnibus spending bills are exposed as if the candidate voted specifically on those issues. In some cases a lack of a vote is counted as a vote against. The Bush campaign says Kerry (and "other liberals") "slashed" intelligence budgets when the actual loss was less than 4% over 5 years. They also intimated that this happened after the 9/11 attacks when in fact it was after the original World Trade Center Bombing. Kerry isn't for partial birth abortions but he was against what he felt was a poor bill banning them. The Democrats have intimated that Bush tried to raise acceptable arsenic levels in drinking water when in fact he questioned how much it should be lowered (and in the end it was lowered exactly the same amount as requested by the Democrats). Bush didn't "ban" stem cell research rather he banned federal funding for research into new lines of stem cells. In short, everybody lies. It's a sad, frustrating and ultimately demoralizing fact but it is true. As voters what we have to do is determine which lies we prefer. It saddens me to think about all of the people (many of them here on this list) that believe many of these distortions but I almost envy them the simplicity of their decision. For those of use that know better we do have to come to a decision. Moderates are familiar with this road: the requirement of supporting a candidate while neither deifying him nor demonizing his opponent. Partisans have trouble understanding the subtlety unfortunately, but I find it empowering. I personally find the Bush campaign's continual misrepresentation of statements much more distasteful than the Kerry campaign's chronic habit of misrepresenting figures. At least, so my rationalization goes, they are "more truthful lies". While everybody lies I think of our two choices Kerry lies (slightly) less. I personally find Bush's inability to admit mistakes and tendency to dogmatic extremism much more worrisome than Kerry's pandering. Also I applaud Kerry's ability to allow new convincing information to change his convictions. So I'm a moderate voting for Kerry. I'm not pleased with all his stances or all his actions. He's simply the best choice of the two being offered in my opinion. Should Kerry be elected I will then expect him to answer for his actions and, should he disappoint, be a vocal critic. An important part of being a moderate is recognizing when your candidate puts his foot out of line and being able to give him a slap for it. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes by Ben Forta http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=40 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:133522 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
