Pandering? You can’t become one of the two parties’ nominees without a little bit of pandering. Both candidates’ platforms are full of them. I happen to agree with more of Kerry’s than Bush’s. Bush panders to large corporations and the Christian Right, neither of whom I agree with on almost anything.
I understand the Right’s claims about Clinton reducing Military strength, but they all seem to leave out the fact that Bush Senior started the trend after the Cold War ended. We went almost a decade without a major threat, and the Pentagon advocated a lot of the changes, so you can’t blame it ALL on Clinton. Yes, the Clinton missed a LOT of queues on both terrorism and upcoming threats, but they DID see them coming and gave the incoming Administration a plan to fight them – which W ignored.
Remember, it was the Clinton Administration that suggested the Department of Homeland Security. The Republicans fought it for years, W fought it, just like he fought the 9/11 commission… until it was no longer politically viable to do so.
Where did you find the stuff about the FBI? That’s not a charge I’d heard before.