I generally relish my status as an undecided voter. I hate partisan politics, despise the political games of gotcha and one-upmanship, and get disgusted when Republican and Democratic elected officials spend their (taxpayer-funded) time beating each other bloody. Oh yeah, I voted for Jesse Ventura as governor of Minnesota a few years back. So it is with quite a bit of reluctance that I'm coming to realize that I'm no longer an undecided voter in this year's presidential race.

John Kerry is not the greatest presidential candidate I've ever seen (the really good ones never get elected). Kerry would be basically a caretaker president, hopefully getting us out of Iraq and the budget deficits, but not really starting any thing new. But let's look at the issues which I personally care about:

The Budget Deficit
Since when are the Democrats the party of fiscal responsibility? The record says that they are. Bush has been a complete disaster when it comes to the federal budget, taking an opportunity to pay down the national debt and turning it into the biggest structural deficit the world has ever known. Don't even get me started on the subject of Democrats being the party of big entitlement programs. At least when the Democrats create big entitlements, it's grandma which gets a government check, not big pharma.

You can make the rhetorical argument that tax cuts are a good thing because "it's the taxpayer's money anyway," but guess what: it's the taxpayer's credit card, too, and this administration seems determined to max it out.

National Security
Bush did the right thing by taking out the Taliban, but Iraq is a complete waste of our time. There was no need to start a war, yet start one we did. And guess what: while out young men and women are dying in the streets of Fallujah, Osama bin Laden is still out there somewhere, plotting his next attack.

And guess what else: as long as we're stuck in Iraq, our military is stretched to its limit. We can't fight another Afghanistan right now, no matter how badly we have to. The capacity simply doesn't exist.

The Economy
I don't blame Bush for the bad economy, it was inevitable after the boom of the late 90's. Still, wouldn't it be nice if he was willing to try something other than yet more tax cuts?

Good Government
I've always been a big believer in transparent government. In a democracy, a government which conducts business in secret is a bad thing, and exceptions need to be as limited as possible.

Bush has a serious attitude problem here. Sorry, but "Trust me, I'm your President" just doesn't do it for me.

Civil Liberties
Not as important to me as it was a year ago, mostly because PATRIOT will sunset in a bit, and PATRIOT II doesn't seem to be getting any traction. Still, it really bugs me.

Gridlock
Gridlock is Good in Government. In general, our country is freer, more prosperous, more open, and less stupid when our government is gridlocked. When one party controls both Congress and the Presidency, it becomes too easy for radical elements to push their agenda. Gridlock forces everyone to sit down and compromise in order to get business done--and the only business which gets done is the business which everyone can agree on.

So, taking a good, hard look at all these issues (and others), I can't find a single point on which I think Bush is better for the country than Kerry would be. I'll reiterate the point: I don't think Kerry is great, and he's not likely to be much more than a caretaker, but he's better than the alternative.