I haven't posted much on the CE board lately because I'm dealing with some conflicting values.

I think Bush has been a horrible president regarding international relations. Under Clinton America was respected and envyed by much of the world. Today we have virtually become a rouge nation in the eyes of many of our traditional allies. This is Bush's biggest failure as president in my view. At the same time I strongly support the policy of democratizing the Arab world. The decades old policy of supporting the status quo in the middle east and propping up dictators is one of the root causes of 911. Ironically, the invasion of Iraq is the main cause of our international ostracization, and is the key to democratizing the Arab world.

Bush also has been a terrible president with regard to one of the biggest issues to me: environmentalism. The head-in-the-sand attitude toward global warming and the total lack of any serious long term policy to wean us off foreign fossil fuels is inexcusable. Bush is clearly in the pocket of Big Oil on this issue. We need a Manhatten Project level commitment to convert to clean energy sources and make combustion engines obsolete. The future of our nation, and indeed our species (and other species), depends on it! At the same time, the only other issue I care about as much as environmentalism is space exploration. This is equally critical to the survival of the planet. On January 14th president Bush made the speech I can honestly say I've waited my entire life to hear. We must make this succeed!

John Kerry could make this very easy for me by supporting the space exploration plan and endorsing the middle east democratization policy (whatever it takes), but so far I'm not seeing that. I have to tell you it is making my political life a major bummer!