Guest Editorial
America Cannot Afford Bush
by Mike Hersh

Monday, Nov. 13, 2000 (AmpolNS) -- America cannot afford President George W. Bush.

The media ignored Bush's lies, docilely refused to probe his fundamental misstatements of facts, and allowed him to lodge false accusations with impunity.

For example, Bush looked into the TV cameras and LIED when he claimed Gore outspent him on the campaign. Bush also LIED about his prescription drug plan covering all seniors. Bush LIED when he claimed Gore was using "phony" and "fuzzy" numbers on the Bush tax plan. Under the mild cross-examination by Good Morning America's Charlie Gibson, W was forced to admit that Gore was 100% right about Bush's tax plan. 

Bush does promise to give more than 40% of the entire surplus to the 1% of Americans who need it least. Bush LIED about this over and over and over during the debates and the campaign, and tried to claim GORE was dishonest. Finally, Bush came clean in the third debate

But where was the media? And where is the outrage? 

Bush lied by claiming Al Gore is a big spender who would grow the government. His only "proof" is a sham--a dishonest partisan report prepared by Republicans in Congress. Bush even lied about who prepared the report. Gore told the truth about his record for cutting the size of government over the past seven years, and Bush's Texas record of growing government. Bush used this dishonest attack on Gore throughout his campaign. 

Bush lied when he denied that Gore told the truth about the Bush deficit hike scheme. Bush's tax plans would spend more than the entire surplus, and send more than 40% of it to the richest 1%. That would be a larger share of the projected surplus than Bush would add to Social Security, defense, the environment, education, and Medicare COMBINED. 

Bush's top economic advisor Martin Anderson admitted that his Social Security plan would force the trust fund to borrow as much as $3 TRILLION. Bush has promised the same $1 TRILLION currently in the Social Security to old folks and to young people. He can't give the money to both. Al Gore asked Bush which group would get what. This is a critically important question. The media never corrected the record or demanded answers.

The media ignored Bush's shady dealings. His " bad baseball" goes far beyond trading Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines. Bush broke his word, shaking down Texas tax payers by threatening to move their ball club unless they gave him millions and free land for the Ballpark at Arlington. Bush demanded sales taxes and pocketed the proceeds when he padded his tiny stake in the Texas Rangers into a multimillion-dollar bonanza.

Read MY lips: those ARE new taxes. 

Then Bush rode to wealth and the Governor's mansion on the backs of the taxpayers and baseball fans in Arlington. All the while he called this "entrepreneurialism" and lashed out at poor women and kids who rely on government.

When Bush got to the Governor's Mansion in Austin, he turned it into the Best Political Whorehouse in Texas. Since then, the record shows, Bush has held Texas "hostile" to ALL children. 

Yet the media continued to accuse Gore of lying, but let Bush join their chorus of piddling accusations as Bush himself spewed bald- faced lies about his plans that don't exist, and plans which are not his even after he plagiarizes them. For example, "his" prescription drug plan was lifted from Sen. John Breaux. The Bush campaign ran ads claiming he had a better plan than Al Gore. Bush didn't have a plan at all! These ads lied claiming Gore would "force seniors into a government HMO," when there is no forcing and no HMOs in the Gore proposal.

Does Bush really think Medicare is an HMO? Is he stupid or lying? Does Bush plan to raid the system like the Republicans tried in 1995?

The media never pushed these questions -- in fact, the opposite occurred when, with only a few exceptions, media outlets let Bush lie about his Texas "miracle."

The only miracle is that they haven't run W out of Texas past Mexico and all the way down to South America, which is where Bush said Mexico is.

How hard would it be to look up the facts about W's dismal record in Texas? Adam Clymer managed to do it, and he's just a major league (expletive)! Big time!

Evenhanded coverage would have shown that Bush is simply not ready for prime time. The media had to keep Gore under an unfair, unflattering microscope to keep W in this race at all. The media held Governor Bush under similarly close scrutiny for ONE WEEK during the past 2 years, and when that happened, W dropped like a rock. This race would have been over a long time ago if the media did its job fairly, well or even fairly well. 

The Bush campaign ran on shadows and chimera. The bottom should have fallen out for W. Bush the minute he showed he is not an acceptable choice. For example, when he demonstrated he has no grasp over the issues, as he did with his witless call for pro-Milosovic Russia to mediate against our interests in Yugoslavia. It's also hard to forget his goofy demand that our European allies contribute to the forces in the Balkans so we don't have to go it alone -- although they ALREADY contribute nearly TEN TIMES the number of troops we do.

The W. Bush candidacy should have died long before the Black Tuesday Stand-off.  It should have been a dead campaign running, but instead the media shielded him from his gaffes and concealed his incompetence.

The Middle East violence also shows that we cannot afford a President W. Bush. When bullets fly and bombs explode, we cannot afford to have a President looking for the " continent" of Nigeria, trying to call "General General" or babbling ridiculously about international situations. 

Even in quiet times, we cannot afford a President slandering leaders of other nations as w did with his bizarre accusations that a top Russian official stole money from the IMF. 

The last time media shielded a candidate like this was 1980. The press gave a free pass to Reagan, overlooking assertions such as "nuclear proliferation isn't any of our business." They even attacked Carter for telling the truth about Reagan's economic proposals. Reagan won and everything Carter told us about Reagan came true. Once again the media is AWOL while an affable candidate runs on a platform of voodoo economics, foreign policy naiveté, and simplistic, hypocritical moralizing. 

Speaking of AWOL -- the media aided and abetted Bush's cover up of the gap in his National Guard service record. They also helped Bush and Cheney attack Clinton and Gore for sending US forces to contain conflicts in potential hot spots. This was known as the Cheney Doctrine. The media stood mute when Bush and Cheney attacked military readiness although Clinton and Gore they reversed cuts by Bush's father and Cheney.

Picture W. Bush trying to mediate a settlement between Pakistan and India to avoid nuclear war. Or trying to lead toward peace in Northern Ireland or the Middle East. He would need a map in his lap to know which nation was which, and the leaders would need to wear nametags. W. Bush confuses millions with billions and spending with revenues.

The media knew all of this, but helped Bush bamboozle enough voters to win. They seldom mentioned that Texas has a weak governor system, and can survive a weak governor. Even so, Texas fell toward the bottom in standard of living, pollution, health coverage, place to raise children, and numerous other categories. We won't mess with Texas. Texas had Bush as governor for one term, and decided they wanted to endure him for another. We should let them.

America cannot afford President George W. Bush.

Hopefully,  we will not get one.