The Conservative Cat

This, of course, is because to justify being against a particular policy, you only need one example of something gone wrong. To be for a policy, you have to prove that it can't possibly go wrong.

Bill Clinton understood this. He didn't understand it right away, mind you: he learned the lesson the hard way in 1994. Two years of liberals running unfettered in the nation's capital produced a massive retroactive tax increase, a family leave provision that was virtually useless, an attempt by the Attorney General to define what should go on television, and a health-care plan that was closer to fascism than socialism. The result was a completely unexpected Republican victory in the 1994 Congressional Elections. After that, most of Clinton's presidency focused on stopping the Republicans, and this kept his popularity fairly high.

Of course, the downside to this is that while many people have a warm feeling about Clinton's presidency, his most memorable act was not getting impeached.

It is a different world now, however. If you're going to be President, people are going to need to know what you're going to do about terrorism. In all honesty, a firm position on stem cell research, military pay, and campaign finance reform is a wonderful thing, but it all seems pretty trivial compared to, say (I'm just taking a random example here) guys blowing up buses and subways. Leave us not forget that in 2004 a lot of people were upset with the way Bush was handling the War on Terror, but they were more upset by the idea of Bush not handling the War on Terror.

This is why Cindy Sheehan is just a circus, full of sound and photo ops, but signifying nothing. It's very heroic of you to be against the War in Iraq, Cindy, and it's also very safe. But there's no safe way to put an end to terrorism, and if Casey Sheehan were still alive, he'd be the first person to point that out.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat