Welcome

Welcome to Ambrosia--Ambrose's blog. Ambrose is political, maybe caustic, hopefully thoughtful, sometimes funny, often quirky, and probably pretty unreliable. Which is to say, don't expect to find new material every day. Ambrose speaks when the spirit moves him.

Today Ambrose is delighted that John Kerry turned in such a stellar performance in the third debate. But don't we think it's just a bit odd that the current Prez has been so consistently awful in the debates? There's more than enough bloggie speculation about various ailments, bulges, wires, insulin pumps, the "White House bubble," and other possible excuses, but whatever the problem, it's pretty clear that this is not the man that we've been led to believe has been leading our country for the last four years. This emperor not only has no clothes, but he's got a pot belly and a wrinkly doodie, as well.

Has the mainstream media been deluding us, or has it just been spun silly by the relentless White House PR juggernaut? Where's the Bush we heard was the tough world leader who was the only thing standing between us and annhilation by terrorists? It's really hard to pretend that he's anything but an empty suit when you see him side-by-side with Kerry, actually having to hear criticism and address direct questions, stumbling and bumbling and having, well, um . . . pretty much nothing to say.

So what were the rough and tough journalistic types afraid of for the last four years? How did this guy get a pass for so long? Suddenly he's openly suspected of cheating in the debates; suddenly it's clear he has no program for the next four years; suddenly it's obvious that the tax cuts didn't work, the WMD weren't there, Osama is still at large, the terrorists are flocking to Iraq, the Iraqis themselves are unlikely to manage a democratic government even as contentious as our own, No Child Left Behind isn't working, and we've alienated our allies; suddenly we wonder why the Congress managed to do pretty much nothing for the last year; suddenly we notice that he's racked up the biggest deficit in the history of the world; suddenly it's obvious that the gay marriage thing is a feint . . . . Weren't these things evident to anybody but Paul Krugman and Ambrose during the last four years?

Oh, well, better late than never. There's probably no hope that anyone will break on the actual cause of the Bush bulge before the election, though, which is a pity, because Ambrose really, really, really hopes that it will be absolutely irrelevant to anyone but historians after Nov. 2.