winterbadger | Cheney

I had dinner with the charming and lovely

azbound at a small Indonesian restaurant of her choosing, then we went back to her dad's place to I could lavish attention on her cats, watch a West Wing rerun with her, and listen to some of Cheney's convention speech.

I was struck not only by the usual self-serving and cynical mischaracterization of John Kerry's words and record, but by the fact that almost all of his speech was either about Kerry (isn't there someone you're running with, Dick?) or about the war in Iraq, which the administration has made such a tremndous hash of. I guess they've decided that they can't actually win on their own record, and that if they say "we're winning the war against terrorism" often enough, people will just forget the coffins that keep slowly sliding back to the US, the total failure of the "coalition of the willing" to provide security for the people of Iraq, and their failure to create a safe and secure environment for elections in Afgahistan.

One could argue whether they've effectively disrupted al Qaida for the moment, but they've certainly not defeated it, and by the way they handled the Iraq situation have created a vast new constituency for anti-American anger and terrorism that was before only a simmering but unempowered anti-American resentment. People could argue whether US-supported UN sanctions were killing Iraqis or whether the Iraqi government's handling of the sanctions was to blame, but when US warplanes blow up Iraqi houses and US soldiers shoot Iraqis in the street, there's really no question who's to blame, whatever the reasons for the actions.

All in all, it looks as if this is going to be a very negative election (the sort that Karl Rove runs only too well), concentrating not on Bush's record (since he can hardly run on a failed war strategy and a stagant and sickening economy) but on nebulous pangyrics about the war on terror and repeated attacks on John Kerry.

I'd really like it if Sen. Kerry would stand up and make a full-throated response, challenging the president's performance, and if the media would actually cover it instead of simply acting as the president's PR firm.