The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: Viewpoints

First-year public relations student

An upbringing in Philadelphia makes for a very different individual than someone born and raised in the South. Not better and not worse; just different. When a person from Philly decides that he or she doesn't like someone, no manners are wasted. We're very frank people.

I'd like to put this out there. I do not think that the president is evil. To be completely honest, I doubt that true malevolence is within his capabilities. I would say incompetent, dishonest and unfit, but not evil. The past seven years weren't a solo effort by any means. All of the people in charge are guilty of gross incompetence and, some could say, war crimes. However, I wouldn't call most of them evil (though my family refers to the vice president as "the dark prince.")

They're people, albeit people in positions of much higher power than the rest of us. Their power does not mean that they are beyond accountability for their actions.

Though my opinions may seem un-American to some, there is nothing more patriotic than presenting my views on the government. The First Amendment exists for a reason, and this country has a long history of mocking its leaders.

This is one of the best things about our democracy; it's how Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Lewis Black make their living. If we cannot find anything to laugh at or rant about in our government, something is very wrong. Life is odd.

I'll admit it, I probably do cross the line over mockery to outright criticism when I write about this administration. I think that we should probably respect our leaders to a degree, but I also believe that once a person has lied to me and wronged me, he or she has irreversibly lost any last shred of respect that I might have previously held.

President Bush is an awful president. People can criticize me, but I have not bankrupted an entire country. When Bill Clinton left the White House, this country had a surplus of $236 billion. Not a penny of that is left with the national debt exceeding $9 trillion.

The mismanagement of the War in Iraq is astounding. Everyone should know by now that there were no WMDs and Saddam Hussein had no ties to Al-Qaida. More recently, companies such as Kellogg Brown & Root (a branch of Halliburton) and Blackwater USA have been making untold sums of money off Iraq, becoming war profiteers.

Maybe I am a bit too harsh on this administration, but I truly believe that they deserve it all for their crimes against the American people and the world.

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