I’m not going to change anyone’s mind about abortion or taxation in the next 700 words, but I do think there’s something to be learned about the role of the president. For that, a brief history lesson is needed.

When the Founding Fathers were writing the Constitution, there was a lot of support for having the presidency be not an individual, but a committee. This idea, however, failed, and history clearly recounts the reasoning for vesting all of that power in one person: the Founders realized that the entire purpose of the executive branch was to have one person who could make decisions about the welfare of Americans when they needed to be made.

Whether or not you agree with his principles, no one can deny that President George W. Bush has been consistent in making decisions and—more importantly—standing by them. While this serves as ammunition for his critics, it also shows that the Founders got what they had hoped for in 1787 and the American people got what they voted for in 2000: leadership. For that reason, the choice between John Kerry and President Bush shouldn’t be dominated by any particular issue.

Kerry’s experience at making major decisions has been restricted to little more than choosing which issues he’s going to reverse his stance on as he eats his corn flakes each morning. I could provide the readers with an explanation of all those reversals, but it would take up about eight pages of newspaper—really.

President Bush, on the other hand, has fulfilled this element of his job description perfectly. No one voted for Bush based on his public speaking ability. The American people wanted leadership and they got it. You don’t have to love him. You don’t have to agree with him. This is America, and you’re free to have your own opinions. But seeing as he’s the leader of the institution that safeguards those freedoms, a job of somewhat greater merit than being managing editor of The Polytechnic, he deserves our respect.

I could spend the remainder of my 700 words refuting the outlandish claims that have been leveled against President Bush over the past several months, but I have enough confidence in the readers to believe that they’re not letting CNN spoon feed them their opinions, and that they themselves have identified the “lies, mistruths, and deceit” that the other side has been peddling to the American people. I often worry that by August, Kerry will be blaming President Bush for the weather and that if the Red Sox don’t win the World Series in October, his campaign will be trying to pin that one on him too.

The strong leadership that President Bush has provided is critical for America right now. People need a reminder: there has not been a single terrorist attack on the American homeland since that dark Tuesday morning that opened our eyes. President Bush has done an outstanding job prosecuting the war on terror: under his command, over two thirds of al-Qaeda’s leaders have been destroyed. America’s enemies around the world are on the defensive. Most importantly, we’ve been safe.

People need to remember that if Bush had ordered the invasion of Afghanistan on September 10, 2001, Kerry would have been at the head of the mob to crucify Bush on the same charges he’s lobbing at him regarding the war in Iraq. But one day and three thousand murdered civilians later, the man from Massachusetts changed his tune. It’s for reasons like that that we need someone in the White House who will watch out for America, not their own poll numbers. That’s why we’re voting for President Bush to keep his job, and that’s why we think you should too.

Ken Girardin

Public Relations Director