I had a good phone conversation with Victor Harris a couple of weeks ago. Last year at this time I was busy helping Vic in his campaign to become the nominee for the Democratic Party for Ohio’s 40th Ohio House District. Vic organized a great campaign and received 44% of the votes in that race, but, his opponent, Roland Winburn, won the primary and subsequently also won the general election.

Victor Harris with Governor Strickland. I snapped this picture last year, 2008, on MLK Day, after the governor's speech.

Victor is a very impressive individual, a retired army colonel who, unfortunately, came up against the very unfair actions of The Montgomery County Democratic Party.  Last year, I wrote about the campaign in these articles: Victor Harris: Surprised That Local Democratic Party Wanted To Suppress Primary Competition and, How Gerrymandering Defeated An Outstanding Candidate.

Vic is now living in Washington DC and is working as a speech writer for the Secretary of the Army. I’m sure he is doing an outstanding job.  He has a new baby boy, his second, and he says that he and his wife are enjoying Washington and looking forward to the inaugural.

I got a chance to know Vic and his family during his campaign — Senite, Vic’s wife, fixed a lot of good meals for us — I was very positively impressed with Vic, his character, outlook, and abilities. I hope that, eventually, Vic will once again become involved in the The Montgomery County Democratic Party. Vic says he has kept his official residency in Dayton, still owns his house here. Vic has a lot to offer. The local Democratic Party would receive a big boost if Vic would decide sometime to return to Dayton and become active in the local Party.

Victor sent me this e-mail:

In the last address to our nation George W. Bush stood before former and current administration staffers in the West Wing of the White House facing them, and the nation through the camera lens to provide one last defense of his Presidency. In the same manner that I turn my head and look as I drive by a car wreck, with about 500 other people if the TV ratings are correct, I decided to watch Mr. Bush’s closing argument for the eight very difficult years he put our country and world through. The following are my musings and observations of what I saw and heard:

Without his knowing it, many of  Bush’s defenses were an admission of his failures. To say that he had “good intentions,” or that he was unafraid to “make tough decisions,” is to say “I meant to do well but did not, and like an Olympic gymnast I should get points to overcome my failures because I had a high degree of difficulty.”  Most Presidential decisions are difficult, so Bush’s comments about his courage in making tough decisions sounds empty.

Mr. Bush, you were President of the United States. If there is a job description for the position I’m sure somewhere in the first paragraph its says “Must be unafraid to make tough decisions.” In any case, unafraid, or frightened to death, the only thing the American people care about is that the president’s decisions are good, even if he pissed his pants while making them.

Bush’s continuation of the overly simplistic “good vs. evil” argument defending his disastrous invasion of Iraq shows that he did not learn a thing in eight years.  In all the numerous intelligence and foreign policy briefs our incurious president actually listened to (Aug. 6, 2001 not included), you would think he would have discovered a gray-area or two. Bush effectively said that the world is like a bad movie script with absolutes defining every challenge and that the way to “VICTORY” is to ride into town on a white horse with guns blazing, shooting all the bad guys without hitting any of the good folks, and, to leave town with those good folks lining the streets cheering praises, under a giant “Mission Accomplished” banner.

Mr. Bush trotted out his old illogical mainstay that freedom is a gift from God and that democracy is the global panacea that will solve our world’s problems. This ignores the very undemocratic way in which Mr. Bush gained office in 2000, and ignores his willingness to run roughshod over the Constitution to justify numerous illegal actions. Mr. Bush never understood how cultures trump political ideology and that the Bible is a document of faith not a document of governance.   I would love to ask, “How’d those elections turn out in Gaza, George?” A little less reading of the Bible and more reading of our Constitution would have served him well.

Mr. Bush’s claim that “there can be little debate about the results” of his post 911 actions, because we have not had another attack since 911, is particularly disturbing.  This is about like the producer of Ford Theatre saying, “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln what a great play we put on last night, huh.”  Mr. Bush: 911 HAPPENED ON YOUR WATCH AND IT’S TIME YOU TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT!!!

Wouldn’t it be great if we all could ignore huge screw-ups as if they didn’t happen and could not take any responsibility for them? An inmate could say, “Aside from that triple homicide I committed 10 years ago, I ain’t broken the law since.”

There can be a whole lot of debate as to the actions Mr. Bush took to keep us safe post 911. I seem to recall his Administration fighting against the formation of the Department of Homeland Security he touted last night. I also recall Mr. Bush fighting against the formation of the 911 Commission, fighting to prevent Administration officials from testifying before the commission once it was formed, and then fighting to prevent implementing its recommendations. I also recall Bush invading a country that had nothing to do with 911, taking resources away from the country that had a lot to do with 911, and making over 4,000 Americans a whole lot less safe in the process.

It’s also worth noting, that saying we have not had another attack on U.S. soil in the past seven years is not all that great of an accomplishment, given that about 50 years and 11 Presidents have come and gone since we had the last attack on U.S. soil.

Mr. Bush said, “Facing the prospect of a financial collapse, we took decisive measures to safeguard our economy.”  This is like saying, after I “sucker-punched” you in the eye and blinded you, I quickly decided to give you an ice cube to make the swelling go away. Once again Bush fails to take responsibility for his role in a major screw-up.

It’s funny to see George and the neocons swear by deregulation and tax cuts as the absolute solution for our economy for decades and then act like the imposition of their economic doctrine had no relation to the record deficits, unemployment, housing foreclosures, sky-high energy prices, record debt owed to foreign countries, and the collapse of our financial system. I guess all these things just coincidentally happened under Bush’s watch with no relation to the fact that his economic policies guided us over the last eight years.

And what is it with the “decisiveness” argument? A bad decision is a bad decision, regardless.

I could go on but I will stop.  This pathetic chapter in our nation’s history, thankfully, is about to close — as the current occupant slithers out of the White House — allowing us to begin again with new hope for a bright future.