Come on, Charley, look at what you're saying

I like Charley Reese's articles for the most part. But I have to take issue with today's.

Too many Americans seem to think that everything in politics is about being either for President Bush or against him. They are encouraged to do so by partisan propagandists.

That's wrong. That's no different from people living in a dictatorship who have only one choice, to be either for the dictator or against him. We don't have a dictator. We have an elected politician, and as free American citizens we can either agree or disagree with some or all or none of his policies. And we have a God-given right to express that disagreement.

We have a dictator tot. We don't have an elected politician this time around. Our right to express disagreement is claimed on our behalf in the Constitution...God didn't grant it.

My beef with the president is not with George Bush, the man. He seems like an affable and decent chap.

I have seen that so many times by columnists and reporters - even those whose opinions and articles I typically agree with. Particularly the affable adjective. Are they all watching Fox News? Are they paying any attention to what this affable and decent chap is doing and saying? Either the answer is no, or they have a different dictionary than I do.

My beef is with his policies and with his administration's apparently rock-solid determination to never tell the truth to the American people. His chief adviser, Karl Rove, seemed to have launched the 2004 re-election campaign the day after inauguration in 2001. Consequently, everything the president does and says seems guided by that goal.

So how does that make him a decent man? That makes him a puppet or a whore, but not a decent man.

His sneaky in-and-out trip [to Baghdad] is a sharp contrast to the pictures of Saddam Hussein walking around with a huge crowd of admirers in broad daylight after Baghdad had fallen and the American Army was looking for him.

So how does that make him a decent man? Since when is sneaky decent?

I'm not questioning the president's courage. I'm sure he's a brave man.

And just where and in what form has he exhibited bravery? There are plenty of instances of just the opposite.

But what alarms me most about our president is that he appears to be totally oblivious to everything outside his small, tightly controlled circle. He seems smug even.

Well, in a word, yeah. So how does that make him affable and decent?

Come on, Charley, et al., let's stop apologizing for the little emperor. He's not affable. And he's not decent. He's mean-spirited and crude and stupid and a liar. And out for all the power and wealth he can accumulate, even if it is simply from trickle down by running with the power crowd. And he's a vindictive s.o.b. with no sense of diplomacy.

Well, it remains to be seen if he will be re-elected. It will depend not on what polls indicate today, but how the American people feel next November. That is as unpredictable as all the foreign and domestic events that might occur between now and then. Until then, Americans should debate policy and not attach themselves like mindless groupies to either Bush or any of his opponents. We are not fans or followers. We are citizens, with the responsibility to think about what is best for the country and to make an informed decision at the next election.

Point taken, Charley. But just because he has bad policies and bad advisers doesn't mean he isn't a despicable man.