FROM THE
Oct. 21, 2004
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The
Journal endorses
by JUDY HODGSON
We sat down Monday with Assemblymember
Patty Berg, who is running for reelection. (See
story) At the end of the interview I asked her how things
were going in Sacramento, especially with the new Republican
governor. She said pretty well, actually. She said Schwarzenegger
is smart and a good listener, open to new ideas, and then she
rattled off four or five instances where Democrats have been
able to convince him to change course by restoring funding to
a particular program, for instance.
"You mean he is a flip-flopper?"
I joked.
"Exactly," she said.
He can be educated and he is willing to change his mind based
on more and better information.
It will come as no surprise
to readers of the Journal that we are enthusiastically
backing that other alleged flip-flopper, John Kerry, for president
in what is the most important election certainly in my lifetime.
Those of us who well remember
the Vietnam War era as adults have no trouble recalling how we
felt and when we felt it. I personally think Kerry was a late-bloomer
in coming around to his anti-war stance in 1971. But I have nothing
but admiration and respect for his service and for his actions
when he returned. Who had a more profound right to have an opinion
about that war than someone who served, observed firsthand, and
returned to work so passionately to get this country back on
the right track again?
He can do it again. Kerry is
a man of deep moral convictions and intelligence, and this country
needs his proven leadership.
This endorsement is consistent
with our editorial track record. One year after 9/11 we were
becoming increasingly alarmed by the Bush administration's preparation
for war with Iraq when there was no evidence of a link with the
attacks of the previous year. In an editorial,
we called for no military action without a second definitive
U.N. resolution and we called upon Congress to resist unilateral
action.
It was a long and dreary winter
into spring, especially when it became evident that nothing was
going to stop Bush's march to war. On April
3, 2003, we wrote of our anger that Bush kept promising he
"was working on a peaceful solution, a diplomatic solution,
all these long months when he wasn't.
"[Bush] has eroded our
civil liberties. He has intimidated the press. He has put the
government in financial peril. He has done great damage to two
political giants -- Colin Powell and Tony Blair. He has driven
a wedge between the U.S. and Europe. He's made an enemy out of
the United Nations. And now he is threatening world stability
with the invasion of Iraq."
This is the single issue of
this presidential race. It's sad that we can't even focus on
issues such as education, health and the economy while Americans
and Iraqis are dying every day.
The Journal will also
be endorsing in state and local contests next week. The League
of Women Voters and KEET-TV, which hosted candidates' forums,
asked that we not endorse within one week of the conclusion of
the last televised debate since Journal Editor Emily Gurnon
and Staff Writer Bob Doran served on several of the panels.
We thank KEET and the League
for hosting these important events.
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