  Browsing the internet posting boards last weekend made me think about the respect, or lack thereof, we give our political opponents. It didn’t take a google expert to find a number of posts where the writer expressed his glee at the death of President Regan. I hope I never get to the point where I celebrate the death of a political opponent. A mortal enemy is one thing, but rejoicing in the death of someone because I disagreed with their fiscal policy?
Nope. This subject has already been discussed and I’m not going to tackle it again, but it made me think about exactly which people or offices demand and deserve our respect for no other reason other than that they simply exist. To be honest, I can’t think of many. Should we respect the office of the Presidency simply because of what it is, or does our respect need to be earned? I just finished “Plan of Attack” by Bob Woodward. Before I read this book I viewed President Bush as a manipulator. I viewed him as a politician who would say whatever needed to be said in order to push through his agenda, and I viewed him as someone who purposely mislead the American people in order to win public support for the invasion of Iraq. Reading the book changed my mind somewhat. After reading the book I viewed President Bush as a politician who had surrounded himself by people who not only lied to the American people, but they lied to their President as well. After reading the book I viewed President Bush as a man who meant well and truly believed he was doing the right thing.
In short, he is someone who did the wrong thing for the right reasons. The more I think about this, the more I wonder. Take the news from the last two days as an example. Yesterday Vice-President Cheney gave a speech once again claiming that there were long-established ties between the Al Qaida and Iraq. He offered no evidence other than his word. Today the 9/11 Commission refuted those claims (not the first time, I might add) and stated that not only did no connections exist, but also that Iraq even rebuffed attempts from Bin Laden to establish ties.
Now here’s the big deal: not one word from President Bush. He and V.P. Cheney have access to the same material from which the 9/11 commission reached this conclusion, yet they continue to make these claims or stand silently by while others make them. These are the same claims used to enlist support from the well-meaning average citizen for the Iraq War, which has resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 people. Over 10,000 deaths, and our President feels no reason to admit mistakes about weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaida.
Worse than that, he has even joked about not finding the weapons of mass destruction. So I ask the question again, should we respect the office of the Presidency simply because of what it is? I don’t think so. In order for a person to have my respect, they better have a moral compass, and this President shows all the signs of having lost his. A moral compass doesn’t prevent people from making bad decisions and doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.
However, it should prevent you from allowing the same lies to be told which got you lost in the first place, it should help you in correcting your actions when it has become obvious you were wrong, and it should prevent you from joking about topics such as weapons of mass destruction. Again, searching for WMD’s and invading Iraq has cost over 10,000 lives. Now, isn’t someone who would joke about a topic such as WMD’s the same type of person who would joke and rejoice at the death of an ex-President? urlLink MORE… 
