Did you see the edits editors at USA Today allegedly made to the Coulter column? What if they took the same pen to Bill Clinton. Something like:
We Americans must choose for President one of two strong men who both
love our country, but who have very different worldviews: Democrats
favor shared responsibility, shared opportunity, and more global
cooperation. Republicans favor concentrated wealth and power, leaving
people to fend for themselves and more unilateral action. I think we’re
right for two reasons: First, America works better when all people have
a chance to live their dreams. Second, we live in an interdependent
world in which we can’t kill, jail, or occupy all our potential
adversaries, so we have to both fight terror and build a world with more
partners and fewer terrorists. We tried it their way for twelve years,
our way for eight, and then their way for four more.
USA Today: IS THAT LAST SENTENCE SARCASTIC? IF SO, YOU SURE LOST ME.
By the only test that matters, whether people were better off when we
finished than when we started, our way works better-it produced over 22
million good jobs, rising incomes, and 100 times as many people moving
out of poverty into the middle class. It produced more health care, the
largest increase in college aid in 50 years, record home ownership, a
cleaner environment, three surpluses in a row, a modernized defense
force, strong efforts against terror, and an America respected as a
world leader for peace, security and prosperity.
USA Today: NOT FUNNY, I DON’T GET IT.
More importantly, we have great new champions in John Kerry and John
Edwards. Two good men with wonderful wives-Teresa a generous and wise
woman who understands the world we are trying to shape. And Elizabeth, a
lawyer and mother who understands the lives we are all trying to lift.
Here is what I know about John Kerry. During the Vietnam War, many young
men — including the current president, the vice president and me-could
have gone to Vietnam but didn’t. John Kerry came from a privileged
background and could have avoided it too. Instead he said, send me.
USA Today: DO YOU REALLY WANT TO TALK ABOUT SERVING IN VIETNAM?
YOU KNOW, BEING WHO YOU ARE AND ALL?
When they sent those swift-boats up the river in Vietnam, and told them
their job was to draw hostile fire-to show the American flag and bait
the enemy to come out and fight-John Kerry said, send me. When it was
time to heal the wounds of war and normalize relations with Vietnam-and
to demand an accounting of the POWs and MIAs we lost there-John Kerry
said, send me.
USA Today: AND YOU AGREED, SAYING “SEND HIM?”
When we needed someone to push the cause of inner-city kids struggling
to avoid a life of crime, or to bring the benefits of high technology to
ordinary Americans, or to clean the environment in a way that creates
jobs, or to give small businesses a better chance to make it, John Kerry
said send me.
USA Today: I DON’T GET IT.
Tonight my friends, I ask you to join me for the next 100 days in
telling John Kerry’s story and promoting his plans. Let every person in
this hall and all across America say to him what he has always said to
America: Send Me. The bravery that the men who fought by his side saw in
battle I’ve seen in the political arena. When I was President, John
Kerry showed courage and conviction on crime, on welfare reform, on
balancing the budget at a time when those priorities were not exactly a
way to win a popularity contest in our party.
USA Today: ARE YOU SAYING NO ONE LIKES HIM AND HE’LL LOSE? I
DON’T GET IT.