Cheat-Seeking Missles

Monday, October 18, 2004

A Purposeful Presidency

A life purpose isn't built overnight. It is formed early and grows slowly, nurtured by feedback and strengthened by milestones in passion, pain, achievement and failure. The president of the only superpower on the planet should understand his purpose with clarity and pursue it with integrity.

President Bush may not always understand how mind, larynx and mouth are supposed to work together; he my frighten timid Europeans with his assured, straightforward beliefs, but he certainly understands his purpose. When the 757s hit the Twin Towers, his entire lifetime -- early exposure to world politics, youthful misadventures, mid-life conversion, private and public sector work -- congealed into a fierce purpose: to protect American democracy, world democracy, from terrorist repressors of life, libery and happiness.

And Senator Kerry? His purpose is to be president. Beyond that, clarity fogs. The mist may be the result of his 20-year Senate career, where passion, pain, achievement and purpose were dulled by Senatorial privilege, three re-election campaigns and two remarkable successes at gold-digging. His lack of purpose is evident in his record; his staff's insistence on 59 bills in a 20-year career is both pathetic and false, and not a single piece of Kerry legislation is the result of a long-term passion for anything but pandering to the electorate.

This November, vote with a purpose.