Three thousand six words that crescendoed with thirty four words that, much like the argument about last week’s $700+ billion bailout, was the “slam-dunk” argument convincing Americans that the risk of not going to war far outweighed the risk of going to war:

America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

For many Americans, including myself, the image of a mushroom cloud, perhaps over my home in my beloved Manhattan, was far too compelling to ignore any longer. And Bush did succeed in taking us to war, through fear and intimidation, but with little facts, as it now appears he has succeeded in taking us to the cleaners, through fear and intimidation, but with little facts.

Though early in the race, we are already seeing signs of success similar to those we saw under his calamitous reign over the war: huge drops in the markets, worldwide, loss of confidence, worldwide, loss of personal net-worth, worldwide, loss of jobs, worldwide. Yesterday’s (albeit somewhat recovered but nevertheless historic) 800 point drop in the DOW, Russian markets having to close twice, even the fact that the second most-Googled term right now is “commercial paper”, leads anyone to believe that we are in for a long, cold winter, and unfortunately spring, summer, and fall.

No one is expecting any economy to recover in the near term. Bush’s fear mongering has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, although not in the form he predicted. He has been wrong on every count. There were no weapons of mass destruction. The markets essentially collapsed despite passage of the $700+ billion bailout bill. We learned Friday that another 159,000 jobs were lost in September, the ninth straight month of job losses, adding up to three quarters of a million lost jobs this year alone. Unemployment stands at a staggering 6.1%. On his Sunday talk show, John McLaughlin predicted next year unemployment will go over 11%. 

Have no doubt, Americans now have images of bread lines entering their heads. Right now, 60% of Americans “believe another economic depression is likely“. There is a huge rise in the use of the words “fear” and “panic” in the media. And for all this, we have Mr. Bush’s incompetence, ignorance, and lack of intelligence to blame. Right now, I pray for an “elite president”. 

By the way, President Bush had the audacity to quote John F. Kennedy in the very next sentence of his “Mushroom Cloud” speech.

As President Kennedy said in October of 1962: “Neither the United States of America nor the world community of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats on the part of any nation, large or small.

If only Bush had listened to the words he had repeated. Let me leave you, and President Bush, and Senator McCain with another quote from John F. Kennedy, from his inauguration in 1961:

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.