Posted 9:46 AM by Michael

OK, Politics! I encourage everyone to watch the last debate tonight. I watched the last three (2 Presidential, 1 vice-presidential) and found them fascinating. What these debates show is that issue politics is alive and well. The candidates have turned away from character questions such as what they did during the Vietnam war (or whether they did anything). Bush and Kerry are actually debating issues and laying out their visions for what they would do on the economy, Iraq, nuclear proliferation, etc. I think this is healthy. Much healthier than the debate during the 90's when the most salient issue involved a blue dress.

In Doonesbury, one of my favorite comics, Garry Trudeau has drawn a lot of criticism over the years for bringing politics to the comics page. Of course, there has been conservative politics on the funnies pages as well, but it has either been subtle or just plain unfunny. Doonesbury is at it again this week, providing URL's to conservative commentary.

This might seem odd to someone who is familiar with Doonesbury's liberal slant, until one realizes that the conservative commentary is critical of George Bush. Here's a juicy piece from Salon: "Conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan worries that Bush 'is fusing Big Government liberalism with religious right moralism. It's the nanny state with more cash.'" Salon This sounds like a good summary of compassionate conservatism.

If you have thought yourself a conservative in the past but are confused about Bush, here are a couple of links to and from Doonesbury:
Doonesbury October 11 www.unionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=44657
Doonesbury October 12 www.poynter.org/forum/?id=misc
Doonesbury October 13 salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/09/10/conservatives/index