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The La Crosse Tribune believes Kerry is the best candidate to be president for the next four years.
Kerry demonstrated during the three presidential debates, that he has the intellectual skills needed to lead. Kerry will be able to assemble an administration well-equipped to deal with a dangerous and complicated world.
Kerry has the experience and intelligence to begin to rebuild what we have lost: the respect of much of the rest of the world.
Despite a background of privilege equal to that of the incumbent, he has a better understanding of the concerns of the average American.
And despite the millions the Bush campaign has spent painting Kerry as a flip-flopping legislator with a nonexistent record, the real senator is far different.
Kerry's career has not followed the normal path. He used his skills as a prosecutor to lead an investigation of money laundering at an international financial institution, the Bank of Credit and Commerce. The bank was shut down.
That sounds arcane, but given the corporate accounting scandals of the past few years it might be better described as prescient.
The BCCI was a corrupt place where drug dealers, thugs and terrorists benefited. Kerry used the skills he learned as a prosecutor to lead a dogged investigation that produced real results.
And Kerry worked with Republican Sen. John McCain to investigate the status of prisoners of war and those missing in action in Vietnam. The senators' success in learning the fates of our soldiers led to normalization of relations with Vietnam.
These activities might not make for good campaign sound bites. What they show, however, is a depth of intellect and ability to deal with complexity.
The debates revealed Kerry as an articulate and knowledgeable candidate who was more than qualified to appear on the same stage with the president.
In 2000, the Tribune endorsed George W. Bush for president. We thought he would be a unifier and a fiscal conservative.
But Bush has fallen short in two key areas: his handling of the Iraq occupation and fiscal policies that turned a $150 billion budget surplus into a $450 billion deficit, the largest in U.S. history.
President Bush had been dealt a difficult hand. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, would tax the skills of any leader.
Initially, Bush rose to the challenge. His speech to Congress following the terrorist attack was moving and statesmanlike. So were his visits to Ground Zero.
The war in Afghanistan was positively justified. But the same cannot be said of Iraq, although the administration contends that Iraq was crucial to the war on terror, even though the actual 9/11 attack was carried out by people with militant Islamist beliefs who got help from the Afghan government and individuals from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other fundamentalist Muslim states.
First we were told that one of the 9/11 hijackers had met with an Iraqi agent in Prague.
But that turned out not to have happened. Then we were told that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. It wasn't true.
The most frightening thing we were told about Iraq was that it might possess nuclear weapons. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said she did not want the next warning to be a mushroom cloud. But it wasn't true.
While Iraq probably wanted to develop nuclear weapons, Saddam did not possess any at that time. He wasn't even close.
Once we got into the war, the Bush administration ignored wise counsel from the State Department.
The State Department warned against the threat of looting and the need to give the Iraqi people the feeling they were safe and secure. It recommended a large force to secure the country in the postwar period.
The result was a postwar occupation with too few troops to keep order.
Even Paul Bremer, who administered the occupation before the creation of an Iraqi interim government, has said this.
Now we face a growing insurgency, and the prospects for a clear exit strategy are unclear.
Meanwhile, nearly 1,100 soldiers have lost their lives — 940 of them since Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier, under a "Mission Accomplished" sign, and declared major combat to be over.
As for the economy, the president chose to give a very large tax cut during the middle of a war, running up record deficits in the process. Republicans used to stand for balanced budgets rather than record borrowing.
It is interesting to note that the Indianapolis Star, a prominent and stalwart conservative voice, had to this say about President Bush in its endorsement of him:
"The president adamantly refuses to listen to those who question him. He has insulated himself from voices he doesn't want to hear and suggest that those who question his Iraq policies are playing into the hands of the enemy."
And that's a view from people who support the president.
It is time for a change.
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