Here's how I look at it... Kerry's full of shit, and Bush is not the brightest person around and, believe it or not, honest to a fault. Kerry talks and talks and talks some more about his plans, and how he can do better than Bush in almost every way, but doesn't say exactly how he plans to do these things. Bush, on the other hand, all of his mispronunciations and stupid quotes aside, is honest, as I said, to a fault. I do not believe that he, himself, deliberately misled the American people to go to war. I believe that, with the information that the CIA gave him, that his own advisors gave him, that the Russian government gave him, stating that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction - the Russians knowing this for a fact, since they gave them to him - he made the choice that he thought was best for his country. So it's the whole "rock and a hard place" problem here. I do not like Kerry, but I'm still voting for Bush, because I don't agree with any of Bush's views on anything - gay marriage, abortion, stem cell research, foreign policy, what have you. I do agree though, that whoever wins... the shit has already hit the fan, and either way, the next four years are going to be hell.
And about Kerry not earning his purple hearts - let's just suppose, for one minute, that he actually didn't get one. He still gets my respect for actually having volunteered to go into Nam in the first place. It's more than I can say for Bush.
"I start to think there really is no cure for depression, that happiness is an ongoing battle, and I wonder if it isn't one I'll have to fight for as long as I live. I wonder if it's worth it."