The New York Times officially endorsed John Kerry for president yesterday backed by a long list of Bush blunders and missed chances. They describe Bush as a man with a "disastrous tenure", a man who promised to stick to the middle of American politics, instead, he turned the government over to the radical right, ran up our deficit during war time, eroded our civil liberties, under funded his education initiatives, weakened regulatory safeguards across the entire spectrum of environmental issues, and created lousy initiatives like the Department of Homeland Security that do nothing more than continually remind the American public that they need to be afraid instead of dealing with our real security issues.

In light of these dire facts half of the American public is still going to vote for Bush. I continually ask myself what people are thinking? I know a good portion of the registered voters really don't get into politics. They keep it simple with issues like abortion, guns, gays and a blind dedication to a certain political party. For these people their vote is simply placed without regard to the big picture and that works for them and they'll never change. But what about the rest? What is wrong with John Kerry? How can you not like this guy? How can you vote for George Bush if you have any understanding of his history and his recent record?

I'm guessing that the answer is fairly simple - The right is just louder than the left, including Kerry himself. We have heard so much about flip-flops, Vietnam, Heinz, liberals, terrorists and swift boats to make any normal American start to question this guy. It comes from all directions and all formats. The right screams from the radio, the tube, the pulpit, and in print on a daily basis and they come with a unified front. They don't attack with a sword but with the sledgehammer. They pound and pound these vague ideas into the deepest cracks of our brain until there is no room for reason and eventually we submit under the pressure. They come with a constant smokescreen to divert our attention from the issues and it works damnit. It really does work perfectly.

Our lives are complicated and we long for our world to be simple and safe. George Bush is the man that promises that gift. He will protect us (and remind us we are unsafe), he will stand with us and pray, and most of all he'll give us the ever popular tax cuts that we all love. Saftey, faith and money are the core needs of Americans and Bush provides that vision of the all powerful and perfect leader - the man we all long to lead us. The good looking, confident, gun toting, bible preaching, bitch of the radical right and he simply knows that this image works.