Scanning the blogosphere today, I found a few interesting posts about Bush’s own record regarding things he says about Kerry and Edwards. First, on the question of Kerry-as-flip-flopper, the excellent blog War and Piece noted a collection of Bush’s own flip-flops as President and governor compiled by the Center for American Progress. Pretty good collection.

The whole flip-flopper thing bugs me anyway, because not allowing for folks to change their mind for any reason pretty much leads to administrations acting like this one… they hope that by standing fast to a decision (any decision, good or bad), they make up any points lost for being absolutely wrong by being “consistent” or “steadfast.” I’m not saying that Kerry hasn’t switched positions on any issues simply for political purposes, just that we should, as a voting public, scrutinize broad allegations.

The second interesting Bush post is actually a collection of people who are surprised that the Bush administration would claim that Edwards is experienced enough to be President, since Bush barely had 5 years in public office before running for President (Edwards, running for vice-president, has been in the Senate since 1998). Juan Cole highlights some some episodes from Bush’s 2000 campaign to remind everyone about Bush’s own inexperience at the national and international level. For those that consider Bush’s foreign policy (the Bush doctrine of preemption) to be a success, clearly 5 years of experience must be just fine. Pandagon had some thoughts on this as well. Dan Gilmor posts Forgetful President Critiques Candidate’s Inexperience, which pretty much says it all. “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again” indeed. Fafblog, of course, brings the appropriate humor to the situation.

Josh Marshall links to a painting he feels summarizes Bush and Iraq.

Finally, a bit of poetry (in homage to my love who is having a rough day)… in the process of ripping Andrew Sullivan a new one for being partisan hack, Brad DeLong presents the Langston Hughes poem that inspired Kerry’s campaign slogan, Let American Be America Again. Sullivan decides that this poem is nothing but an anti-property, Communist call to revolution (oops, Bush claimed he admired Hughes during the 2000 campaign!). Not only do I disagree, I think it’s pretty damn amazing. Here it is:

‘Let America Be America Again’ :: A poem by Langston Hughes :: PoetryConnection.net:

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek–
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean–
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today–O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home–
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay–
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again–
The land that never has been yet–
And yet must be–the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose–
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath–
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain–
All, all the stretch of these great green states–
And make America again!

Damn, that’s good stuff. Almost as good as poems about buttons.