Here's a new standard

Megan McArdle has a lucid and thoughtful analysis behind her endorsement of Bush. I don't agree with her on some things, because I don't think any politician could be competitive if he agreed with me on everything. I think that entitlements, including corporate welfare, will lead to the destruction of this republic, plain and simple, but we've drunk that Kool-aid and I don't see any Ipecac in our near future. I also think that federal taxes should be limited to what's necessary for national defense, running the essential departments of the federal government, such as Congress, the Courts, and the same cabinet departments we had in 1800 and not much else. I consider intelligence part of Defense and the FBI. I would eliminate about 90% of the government and all the unfunded mandates to the states. But I also know that none of the things I'd do have the chance of a snowflake in a heatwave of ever being seriously discussed, let alone happening. So I accept politics as it has become and hope for incremental improvements.

However, war is something different. It's a matter that has huge impacts on every other part of our society, and we cannot go back to the business as usual of the Clinton era. The world is still dangerous, and we know now that the U.N. cannot be trusted to deal with that danger. If anything, as the only superpower, we must be a leader, in the world, even when the world doesn't want to follow. Sometimes I think we're the only adults left, and then I remember John Kerry, and I'm not so sure even that much is true.

In all of this depressing scenario, there are still some bright spots. This year mark another step in our return media freedom. Following on the rise of talk radio, blogs have become a powerful voice balancing the liberal drone from the established media. They will have to change and provide fair coverage or become irrelevant. Play it straight, guys, or the people will go around you.