Webb for Bush; Pignanelli likes Kerry

Webb: I'm unabashedly, unhesitatingly and enthusiastically voting for George W. Bush on Nov. 2. Seldom has a more clear-cut and obvious choice existed.

I generally don't like to label candidates "liberal" or "conservative" because politics is usually more nuanced than that. But in this case the "L word" fits John F. Kerry perfectly. The truth is, he's an old-fashioned liberal through and through, with 20 years of Senate votes as proof, further confirmed by promises, promises, promises made during this campaign.

A Kerry win means pursuit of bigger government and higher taxes, new programs for every perceived societal need. In Iowa last Tuesday, Kerry running mate John Edwards promised that if elected the duo "will stop juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases" and will enable the crippled to "get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." I assume they will also walk on water and feed the 5,000.

It's easy for Kerry to criticize, second-guess and make big promises when he hasn't been in the ring slugging it out. Bush has been there, making very tough decisions in very difficult circumstances. And, certainly, Bush has made mistakes.

But consider his record confronting the challenges. Bush inherited enormous problems in 2001, the legacy of Bill Clinton's eight years of excess, profligacy and neglect. The economy was so overheated from Clinton-era "irrational exuberance" that an enormous meltdown was occurring even as Bush took office. The resulting recession decimated government revenues and caused massive layoffs. But today, thanks to the Bush tax cuts and underlying economic strength, we're on our way to solid economic growth based on a firm foundation, not dot-com pie-in-the-sky.

Bush also inherited a world far more dangerous that any of us knew, in an international climate that coddled and downplayed terrorism. Sept. 11, 2001, changed everything, and right from the outset Bush instinctively understood the full extent and ramifications of the war we are in. While others have wavered, he has not. While others have sounded an uncertain trumpet, he has been firm and resolute.

Has he made mistakes? Yes. Would he do some things differently today? Of course. But wars are messy. Wars are unpredictable. No war has been without mistakes. This war has been fought under the most intense media scrutiny of any war in history.

I heard Charles Osgood say during a recent Utah visit that had the invasion of Normandy, with the loss of thousands of U.S. soldiers, received the same media treatment as today's war in Iraq, Americans would have never had the stomach to win World War II.