# Does anyone believe Bush wont get re-elected? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 8, 2004, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867 "2004-08-08T06:50:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/61 "2004-08-11T07:04:55Z")
> [@lambchops](#): > > Wha? Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that particular landslide telegraphed far ahead of time by the polls? There was a good 10% gap between the two candidates, wasn’t there? No, the first pollster to know the election results accurately were Carter’s internal white house pollsters. Jimmy Carter knew he was going to lose about 48 hours before anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/62 "2004-08-11T07:26:11Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Fiscal conservatism is my big hot button issue and both candidates fail miserably. But in this election I tend to think Kerry is the greater incompetence, so I’ll be voting Bush. Bush is more fiscally conservative? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/63 "2004-08-11T07:31:03Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Bush is more fiscally conservative? 😕 More conservative than Kerry? Yes. Kerry will be just as spend happy as Bush, but even more ready to raise taxes and then spend even more. But fiscal conservatism is basically a dead issue to me in this election because I consider both candidates to be in the F for flunked category. By incompetence I meant I think Kerry will be an abominable leader and so I’m voting for Bush. Basically on a scale of 1 to 10 I rate Kerry a 3 and Bush around a 4.5 or so. Both are bad but I feel Kerry is the worst when it comes to leadership. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/64 "2004-08-11T17:02:46Z")
> [@](#): > > _by astorian_ > > At this point, anyone who’s sure who’s going to win is out of his mind! Out of his mind? Hardly. Please observe: > [@](#): > > _by SentientMeat_ > > Bush is the President the US electorate currently deserves. > > That there is even a serious _question_ of whether the President who oversaw the events of 11th September 2001 will be returned to office is, in its way, astonishing. > > But he will be, and not for any of the foil-hatted chicanery which our Icke-U-Like guest **Got Taste?** preaches on our proverbial street corner. It is simply that the US is a _massively_ right wing country compared to the rest of the industrialised democratic world, and thus deserves a massively right wing President, for all his simian aphasia. The only thing I must add to this summation is that Mr Bush will win, handily, because his party holds the Mint of open war; in this coinage will be his fundamental victory. From the shambles of a library in the Appalachian hollows to the neoteric splendor of a Marin County middle school, the Right will stuff the Polls to the rafters for little more than a crude pittance. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/65 "2004-08-11T17:14:59Z")
> [@El Cid Viscoso](#): > > The only thing I must add to this summation is that Mr Bush will win, handily, because his party holds the Mint of open war; in this coinage will be his fundamental victory. I don’t understand. How can we be at a level of open war if the mission was accomplished? ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/66 "2004-08-11T17:34:06Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Kerry will be just as spend happy as Bush, but even more ready to raise taxes and then spend even more. IIRC, the current budget deficits are the _worst in history_. Why should you expect Kerry to be even worse than the worst? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/67 "2004-08-11T17:46:24Z")
> [@](#): > > _Moody Bastard_ > > I don’t understand. How can we be at a level of open war if the mission was accomplished? You must be following some type of Da Vinci Code. Sadly, while I applaud your bitter decoction, I have said nothing of the sort. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/68 "2004-08-11T17:47:25Z")
> [@SimonX](#): > > IIRC, the current budget deficits are the _worst in history_. Depends. They might be the largest in absolute terms, but not as a % of GDP. The former might sound worse, but the latter is what really matters. I’m not defending defecit spending, just putting thing in persepective. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/69 "2004-08-11T18:03:06Z")
> [@Moody Bastard](#): > > I don’t understand. How can we be at a level of open war if the mission was accomplished? That mission accomplished thing was just a foul canard, forced upon the president by Tommy Franks: > [@](#): > > Franks suggested the president declare the end of major combat operations in Iraq on May 1, 2003. President Bush’s appearance on a U.S. aircraft carrier, which had been decorated with a “Mission Accomplished” banner, has been criticized often. [here](http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/9368921.htm) Now that the general has fallen on his sword over the incident, there’s no _credible_ reason to hold president Bush responsible for it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/70 "2004-08-11T18:17:47Z")
The ironicalistic\* thing is that the bruhaha over “Mission Accomplished” had pretty much died down until Franks brought it up again. \*as Bush might say ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/71 "2004-08-11T18:18:22Z")
> [@SimonX](#): > > IIRC, the current budget deficits are the _worst in history_. > Why should you expect Kerry to be even worse than the worst? Well firstly because the current budget deficits aren’t the worst in history. Secondly, a deficit isn’t a bad thing necessarily, it’s big deficits that are bad (which is obviously the case right now, but I thought I’d just point out that there is more to things than surplus = good and deficit = bad.) Thirdly, I think everyone realizes that after 9/11 we had to pursue certain security measures and change aspects of our foreign policy. A lot of people disagree on the foreign policy decisions of the Bush administration. But the fact remains in times of national crisis we as a people have to accept that there is going to be increased spending, and often this will be deficit spending. No problem there. So I’m a LITTLE lenient on Bush’s deficit spending, no one could help but going in the red after 9/11. Fourthly, on top of what I see as essential deficit spending, Bush has spent a lot of money in ways that I find stupid and porkish. This is where Bush ultimately gets the F, even discounting his security spending (which I feel I should considering the circumstances) he’s failed in most of the fiscal conservative promises he made prior to his election. Fifthly, Kerry advocates a lot of socialization and a lot of new programs that won’t be funded any way other than big taxes or big deficits. And considering the nature of the House, a lot of Bush’s spending isn’t going to be reversed for awhile. So Kerry will be spending on TOP of the Bush deficit so ultimately he will be much more fiscally liberal. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867/72 "2004-08-11T18:19:11Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > True dat. Also true that Bush’s negative coattails could mean the difference in close Congressional and gubernatorial elections, too. Republicans and fencesitters who stay home aren’t going to vote for any other GOP candidates, either. It occurs to me that this is an argument against Australian-style compulsory voting. If people **have** to show up at the polls, they’re likely to take the path of least resistance (voting for whichever major candidate is less objectionable, no matter how slightly)\*, and I just don’t think that the system needs yet another built-in reward for being the lesser of two evils. \*Yes, I know that the Australians have the option of casting a void ballot, but I’m talking about what most people will actually do if required to make a choice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-believe-bush-wont-get-re-elected/258867.md?page=3)