shuffle to the CEN-TER...

Andrea Harris just dealt with Jeff Jarvis's latest in a much wittier way than I ever could:

I once remarked that reading Jeff Jarvis’s blog is like staring at a train wreck full of naked old people: appalling, but you just keep peeking between your fingers...

Here's how Bush could have had a landslide
He's gonna.
: Or to put it another way: Here's how Bush could have had my vote -- and if he'd managed to get the vote of a lifelong Democrat, a Bill Clinton Democrat at that, then he could have gotten millions more unexpected votes and he would have run away with this election. But he's not. Why? Well, he coulda, shoulda....
Ooooh. Little Miss hard-to-get.
1. He should have called Iraq a one-year war (at least), not a one-week war.
"Our boys will be home by St Patrick's Day!" I remember Bush pledging that.
...He should have known that only when we had installed democracy in Iraq could we declare victory.
Bush didn't declare victory. This probably refers to that "Mission Accomplished" sign...but a mission is not a war. Oooops, I forgot. Mr Jarvis is in the "press." They don't know icky military things like that, even after bloggers tell them repeatedly. Besides, that story was too good to check.
He should have put in sufficient resources to do that while better securing the lives of Iraqis and our soldiers.
So eeeeasy, these wars. Clinton would have made it look simple. I bet Jarvis also subscribes to the criticism that we put too many resources into Iraq; that our military is "overstretched," a thin burned-out husk...
He should have managed our expectations and should not have declared victory.
Anybody can fight battles and kill terrorists. But a WORTHY war-leader concentrates on "managing expectations." You're right, Jarvis. Don't ever vote for someone who doesn't "manage expectations" well.

I wonder if he even knows the war is REAL? That it actually exists outside of what the press reports and the candidates debate? I once saw a cartoon, with this dad fixing a flat tire in the rain...and he's saying to his children inside the car, "This is real life! We CAN'T change the channel!"
...I supported getting rid of Saddam and bringing democracy to Iraq and the Middle East (in what was once known as the Tom Friedman doctrine). But like many others who supported this move, I'm disappointed, dismayed, distraught, distressed -- pick your dis -- at the administration's inability to win the peace.
You and Friedman are jerks-of-a-feather. "Are we there yet?" 18 months and we haven't "won the peace?" I bet they don't even stick with their wives for 18 months. Well, we ARE winning the peace. The slow hard way, even if the butterflies can't stick it.

Jarvis's other reason for not voting Bush is domestic:

2. He should have served the center.

Hey, if Bush can become an interventionist and nation-builder, it's not so damned far-fetched that he could have become a centrist, or at least played one on TV.
Ugly news, Jeff. Bush IS the center. The measures he advocates routinely poll 60 or 70%. America is a conservative country with a conservative President. And every election, a few million more Americans have that little lightbulb go on above their heads.
After his unvictory in the last election, he should have gone to the center in an effort to really win the next time.
So if it was an "unvictory," how'd he manage to pass 3 big tax cuts, Fast Track, NCLB, HSA's, Missile Defense? Plus use his executive authority to jettison Kyoto and ABM, limit Stem-Cell research, and implement Faith-Based Iniatives? You better pray you never see Bush after a "victory."
And after 9/11, he should have owned the center to make himself the president of all America in this time of need.
"Why can't he just go to the CEN-TER, where we liberal Democracts dwell at the CEN-TER of CENTRIST politics, just as it has always been, world without end, Amen."? I bet Jarvis still has a Che t-shirt tucked-away at the back of his underwear drawer. He doesn't know he's old gray Castro, stumblin' again.
He could have appointed someone respected instead of John Ashcroft.
Hate to break this, but there's a ton of us who respect John Ashcroft very much. But hey, we NEED the Jarvis vote--let's go back to Janet Reno.
And a little less talk about talking with God would have helped, too.
Oooooh. NOW we get to the nub. But Jeff, if YOU are the CEN-TER, why is former alter-boy saying that his "faith" will guide him when he gets to the White House? I mean, we both know he's lying, but WHY does he have to say that?

Could it be he's "moving to the center?"