GUEST:

I cast my vote for you debaters who can't control yourselves could just go away from this thread.

But, GUEST, isn't that a response to another poster, not an opinion on the issues? Aren't you doing what you accuse others of doing?

Also, as a resident alien of mudcat, you don't have a vote to cast, alas!

So here is my opinion:

My preference is for John Kerry.

Kerry has worked very hard on the environment and has the endorsement of all the major environmental groups. He has a 97% voting record on environmental issues.

Kerry is also better at understanding and expressing the nuances of a situation, where Bush goes for Good/Evil, With us/Against us, Support the War/Hate America dichotomies.

Kerry will do a much better job of taking expert advice. Bush takes it a sign of weakness to admit that he is not the world's expert on everything. He thinks out in advance what would be the best policy for him and his millionaire supporters, then suppresses or marginalizes any scientific data that show his policy to be wrong. He has done this on every issue, from energy to agriculture. Kerry will listen to the experts.

I also believe Kerry will provide adequate support for the military, quite probably better than Bush's. Bush's record of NOT supporting our defense, and especially our veterans, is a matter of record. Once veterans have no good benefits, it's only a matter of time before our all-volunteer military is choked of new recruits.

I believe Bush would let Social Security die, and that Alan Greenspan has already paved the way by disingenuously claiming that "Our economy" would no longer be able to support our older Americans. I believe Kerry would do his best to save Social Security.

I believe Kerry would continue to protect ANWR and other wilderness areas, while facilitating switching us to alternative energy sources. Bush on the other hand would do his utmost to rape the environment for oil, even though drilling in America is a band-aid on a massive headwound. He has to to pay back his oil company friends. It's not about whether we need the oil, but about who gets rich from drilling for it.

I think Kerry will be much better at getting other world leaders to join us in the fight against global terrorism.

I think Kerry will be much better on education as well. Indeed, one could hardly be worse than an underfunded NCLB.

I believe Kerry will do a lot to temper the increasingly fascist tone of American government, with the FBI looking into our library records and people forced to sign loyalty oaths in order to approach a candidate's supposedly public forum.

Finally, I believe the world will be much safer with John Kerry as president.