Rebuttal

Being There - What does 9/11 tell us about Bush? Nothing.

William Saletan hasn't pulled any punches so far in his coverage of the Republican National Convention. Responding to the first night, above, he rips to shreds the notion that President Bush's showing up in New York City after 9/11 and taking a look at the devastation is in any way a comparable display of courage to John Kerry risking his life in Vietnam. He's right, you know, and it's shameful that the American public apparently can't tell the difference between words and deeds. Saletan closes with this reminder of the recent flap over Bob Dole's appraisal of Kerry's wounds:

Watching the attacks on Kerry and the glorification of Bush reminds me of something Dole said in his speech to the Republican convention eight years ago. It was "demeaning to the nation," Dole argued, to be governed by people "who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered and never learned."

You tell me which of this year's presidential candidates that statement best describes.

Saletan's been busy; you can find more of his coverage here, here, and here, where he quite effectively refutes Arnold Schwarzenegger's suggestion that Bush follows in the tradition of Lincoln. The Governator praised Bush for never wavering, but Saletan points out that the results of his supposed steadfastness are nothing to write home about:

I'm no huge fan of John Kerry. He sees two sides of every one-sided issue, and four sides of every two-sided issue. But the alternative is a president who sees one side of every issue, no matter how many sides it has. Given the how many sides there usually are, and given how little effort Bush makes to learn about each issue, the odds are that, on average, he'll pick the wrong side. The record of the last four years shows that he has done precisely that. But because Bush refuses to "waver," as Schwarzenegger charitably puts it, we keep going in the wrong direction. The only way to stop such a president is to vote him out of office. Fortunately, an election is coming.

Two months to go. Hopefully a great many Americans who may have been persuaded by Arnold last night will consider the arguments Saletan makes here before they make up their minds.