Existence, what is it good for The most important issue facing America that will/can be addressed by the next president is America's response to extreme Islamist terrorism. This issue constitutes a short-term threat to our existence.

(There are some other long-term problems, for example Krugman insolvency, but existence has priority over standard of living. Besides Argentina isn't that bad of a place to live... Key word is live. You have to be alive to live.)

I know how Bush sees the problem. War. His rhetoric has been all war and he's waged two military engagements. I tend to agree with this approach, but I have concerns that more subtle aspects of the problem are being missed or overlooked. For example, how do we know that waging war in the middle east isn't creating more terrorists than its destroying? To what extent are our policies in that region fomenting anti-Americanism and to what extent does anti-Americanism embolden terrorists? On the other hand, will a successfully waged War force the terrorist's hand, causing them to engage in a series desperate and deadly last-stands?

I don't know Kerry's position. That concerns me much more.

Going against my previous promises of a protest vote, I'll commit to vote for the mainstream candidate (Kerry or Bush) that best answers the questions raised by the grand SOD in his "leaked" letter to his staff.  ¶ 12:23 AM