Our Plan for America: Stronger at Home, Respected in the World

Rating:
Summary: Let America be cleansed
Review: Having read my fair share of campaign books, I was pleased by the detail offered. Ironically for all of the complaining they do, the 'other' party thrives on secrecy, hypocrisy, and distortion.

Provision of John Kerry and John Edward's ideas for American prosperity and security are radical only because we live in a time when many other candidates have talked over the American people's desire to know what is happening in their own country. Even if the proposals themselves are not revolutionary, the trust in American people is.

This president and vice president are truly exceptional.

Rating:
Summary: Clearly stated and reasonable
Review: Here it is in plain English! Clear statements of political philosophy and plans. This is an excellent book.

While campaign boasts may go unfulfilled, it is important to know what path Kerry and Edwards are committed to. Topics include defeating terrorism, strengthening our military, achieving energy independence, improving the economy, and improving education and health care. What they say is sensible and suggests to me that they would be a more competent team than the one now in office. Read it and see if you agree.

Rating:
Summary: Kerry has a plan!
Review: It is here in this book, clearly stated, coherent, and comprehensive. The problems with his plan are:

1. He assumes that people can read, reason, and think
2. The plan is a little bit more complicated than 'God told me to kick butt!'
3. The rich will only get a little bit richer, while the poor will get a lot richer
4. He wants to govern all Americans, not just the Religious Right

Kerry wants us to be a little bit more tolerant, and he wants us to understand that the US, however powerful, is just one country among many. If the above does not make his opponents go ballistic, the last point most certainly will.

Rating:
Summary: Easy read...but a book with no references
Review: It is important if you choose to write any kind of non-fiction (factual) book that you supply information as to where to get your information. I don't really care if you are liberal or conservative; you must look at this book as containing little to no substance.

In the 296 pages (pages 1-123 are the actual "plan") you will not find a single footnote or endnote. Statistics provided in the book are done so without documentation except for the rare graph that does little other than create some eye candy. The "plan" information is provided without concrete goals as to how Kerry is going to get the job done. There are GOOD ideas presented in this book, ideas that I would hope both candidates would accept; however, these ideas are just words without direction.

How as a people are we supposed to believe anything said to us with out proper documentation? For instance (pg. 63) "In February 2002, the Bush administration said America, under their leadership, would create nearly 6 million jobs by mid-2004. Instead, to date, the economy has lost more than 1 million private-sector jobs under President Bush." This is a great piece of unsubstantiated information. Where do the authors get this information? Bush probably did say this, however, I cannot find the information to go and find the speech in which Bush said this. Information provided to the reader MUST be factual and backed up by good statistical information.

Another quick example (pg. 61) "In the 1990's, we had a strategy of fiscal discipline that rewarded work and invested in the potential of out people. That strategy helped lay a foundation for the economic growth that lifted up all Americans Not only were nearly 23 million jobs created but family income went up for all income groups, while poverty and unemployment fell to the lowest levels in decades and our nation went from large deficits to record surpluses." This again is great information but there are no proven facts or reference articles that are provided here. There are statistics necessary to back up this information!!! What was the unemployment rate at the time Clinton was in office? What is the considered level of poverty at the time this statistic was taken?

Please don't get me wrong. This is a very important election and I would say EVERYONE should read this book. I would also say that people should spend the time and read Bush's ideas which are on his website (www.georgewbush.com). However, you need to really LOOK at the information provided to you.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO STUDY!!! You must make the most informed decision in this campaign, do not base you decision on whether you like one guy or don't like another. Don't make a decision because one is liberal and one is conservative.

Don't make a decision based on a war that neither candidate has provided substantial information to the people (probably because most of the information is still CLASSIFIED). I could rant on one side of Iraq or the other, but without all the information my ideas would be only opinions, not based on factual evidence. Remember every day there are positive things happening in Iraq, the newscasts are much to caught up in telling us about the violence occurring in Iraq. I guess the newscasters (and the American people) are not interested in the schools being rebuild, power plants coming online, children getting fed, or women who are free to walk on the streets. There is more to this war than terrorism. Freedom is slowly taking hold.

I am a 24-year-old student and I understand money is tight. I also don't feel that a person trying to educate themselves to vote should have to pay for a book containing the views of a potential candidate. If you agree, call your local democratic office and see if they will get you a copy that is what I did. Once you get a copy encourage other people to read it, it is a fast read!

MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION THIS YEAR!!!!


Rating:
Summary: These Plans Would Really Have Helped Alot Of People
Review: It's a shame John Kerry didn't win the election. His and John Edwards' plans for America would help alot of people get healthcare, go to college, and have better social security. John Kerry's war plan makes more sense for handling terrorism. It can't just be an all military type of war. It's a shame, we'll have four more years of George W.

Rating:
Summary: Ho Hum
Review: One minute he takes the Howard Dean approach to Iraq, the next minute he takes the Joe Lieberman policy. He says the war was a "mistake" yet he will lead us to "victory".

He talks about building coalitions, yet he didn't support Desert Storm when his French friends were on board. Nor did he even have the courtesy to meet with the Iraqui Prime Minister when he addressed the House and Senate.

And what about those 19 years of voting against building up our armed forces or improving our intelligence capabilities. Nothing in this book tells us what he will do - outside of going along with the 9/11 Commission.

The guy is a war hero one minute; then he's the anti-war candidate the next. He talks about taxing the rich, but hey kiddies, the ones who will feel the pain will be the middle class and the poor while he and Teresa party it up on Cape Cod, or on the slopes in Idaho.

And Edwards, or "stu ped" as one well-known talk radio host calls him,(personally he reminds me of Jimmy Carter) well, what exactly does he stand for?

This book won't tell you. And by the way, notice how his plan for victory against terror is pretty much taken out of the President's own policies???

And - Don't forget about that 87 Billion he voted for then voted against.

Rating:
Summary: How Could Anybody NOT Vote For John Kerry?
Review: The first Presidential Debate has shown the entire world what a great leader the visionary and brilliant John F. Kerry will make, as well as how downright stumbling and pathetic his nominal "opponent" truly is. After such a spectacular triumph, its certainly the perfect time for any remaining undecided voters to read OUR PLAN FOR AMERICA, which comprehensively details the Kerry/Edwards vision for bettering our Bush-whacked country. Kerry offers intelligent, highly workable solutions to make us a safer and stronger country. The Kerry/Edwards plan will also take large steps to gain back the respect the world once had for the U.S., despite Dumbya's loathsome attempts to completely obliterate that respect. Read this book and learn why America deserves a president like John Kerry.

Rating:
Summary: This is for the lame conservatives
Review: They constantly complain that Kerry has "no plans." They got angry after Bush lost the deabtes and still screamed "no plans." Of course they could not comprehend Kerry's plan during the debates since he was only allotted 2 minutes to respond, so here it is.... "Our Plan for America" lays it all out on the table. Of course they still won't get it though.

Rating:
Summary: How to be a Lying Hypocrite for Dummies
Review: This is a great how to book on how to suck and live off of your rich wife with your ten houses and SUV VEHICLES. haha. John Kerry is a hypocrite. Vote for Bush. Don't vote for crap.

Rating:
Summary: Shallow Undocumented Platitudes with No Budget Math
Review: This is an extraordinarily shallow--even glib--book, one obviously written by a committee that combined the worst of all worlds: the intellectual runts from the Clinton Administration who allowed terrorism to flourish on their watch, and the last gasp "spinmeisters" of the Democratic campaign staff. Kerry (more so than Edwards) failed the smell test during this past election, and this book documents how he failed on substance.

It consists of 123 double-spaced pages of shallow material, 16 pages of photographs that range from the goofy to the staged, and a remaining two thirds of the book reproducing old speeches with little in the way of substance and nothing in the way of math (as in a balanced budget).

Kerry's writing committee opens the book by claiming his plan is rooted in values-obviously a majority in America did not buy that, and I do not either.

The book is organized in three sections (not counting the old speeches), on Security, on Opportunity, and on Family. All three consist of so-called "policy" points that cannot be called anything other than platitudes. They are completely lacking in coherence and they have no budgetary or documentary basis in fact.

Within the security section, the four new "imperatives" are alliances, modernize an already over-funded military, deploy soft power (diplomacy, intelligence, economic, values and ideas), and free America from its dangerous dependency on Middle Eastern oil. There is nothing about environmental security and the book displays absolutely zero understanding of the points made by such distinguished commentators as J. F. Rischard in HIGH NOON: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them, or E. O. Wilson in The Future of Life. The security section is pedestrian and incredibly ignorant. It fails to mention even the most basic redirection of resources toward peacekeeping and preventive investments in aid. The section on energy (as a security issue) fails to discuss hybrid cars, solar power for neighborhoods, or meaningful conservation.

The section on opportunity focuses on the middle class and is disrespectfully oblivious to the working poor-indeed, I suspect that neither Kerry nor any of his advisors have read Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" or David Shippler, "The Working Poor: Invisible in America."

Finally, and this is where I believe the Democratic Party really lost it this year, there is not a word in this book about electoral reform-about measures that are needed in order to make every American's vote count, such that we might one day aspire to having a government where Independents, moderate Republicans, Greens, Reforms, Libertarians, and agnostics all have a "fair share" of elected representation. As a moderate Republican, I was prepared to vote for an alternative to the Bush regime, but as a common sense person, I ended up rejecting this option because Kerry-and the decrepit isolated Democratic Party-failed the smell test. This book documents their shallow insularity and the breadth of their inadequacy.