What Kerry needs to say in any of the debates to win OHIO

Based on my conversations with hundreds of Ohio residents, below is precisely what Kerry needs to say to win this state.

Economy and Security - The American people have two key questions to ask themselves tonight.

Are you better off now that this administration and the republican congress has cut state funding to the point that college tuition rates have been skyrocketing each year for the past four years? Are you better off now that this administration and the republican congress has cut pell grants, overtime hours, unemployment funds in the middle of the most devastating recession in terms of job loss since the great depression? Are you better off now that the republican in congress have stone walled every effort to raise minimum wage by even the smallest margins to keep up with inflation for almost a decade?

Are you safer now because of Bush's actions? Are you safer because of Bush's decision to stop negotiations with North Korea to prevent them from continuing their nuclear program two years ago? Are you safer because of the lack of effort that the Bush administration has put into working on a middle east peace process. Are you safer because of the administrations decision to scrap the program we had set up to buy Russia's nuclear arsenal to prevent it from falling into the hands of terrorists? Are you safer because of this administrations decision to cut funding to first responders and port security? Are you safer because of this administrations failure to pursue so many simple things they could have done to improve security? (refer to MSNBC's 12 things we can do to make America safer). Are we safer because of this administration and the republican's congress refusal to renew the assault weapons thus making it that much easier for both gangs and islamic extremists in the United States to buy assault weapons with armor piercing bullets?

Values - This election is a about values. Admitting when you made a mistake is a value. Being honest with people about what is going on is a value. Being willing to listen to the advice of others and being willing to change your mind is a value. Holding yourself or those in your administration accountable for their actions is a value. These are the values we need in our leaders. I'll tell what are the values we don't need. Firing an official for estimating that the cost of the war that you are about to launch will be very high is such a value. Having closed meetings formulating important energy policies with energy corporations making up most of the participants is such a value. Not doing anything about key members of your administration sitting on information about the prisoner abuses going on for six months before they came out in public reinvigoratign the insurgant movment in Iraq is such a value. Passing laws that essentially let the govt arrest and detain people indefinately without ever pressing charges, holding a trial, or so much as telling the person or their family why they're being held against their will is such a value. Threatening to fire a member of your administration if he reveals to congress that the true costs of the Drug Plan you propose will be 200 million higher than you told Congress it would be prior to them voting on it is such a value. Sending out fake videotapes of supposed news stories to small television stations in which your administration hired an actor to play a reporter and give a very positive report of your drug policy is such a value. Passing an additional two trillion dollars in debt to our national debt for our kids to have to pay off is such a value. Allowing the percentage of our tax revenue that goes to paying the interest on the debt that you increased from 5 trillion to 7 trillion dollars in just four years to 24% of every dollar the federal government in taxes each year is such a value. Not admitting your mistakes is such a value. My daughters when they were much younger, refused to admit their mistakes. Should they have run for office too?

Flip Flops - Bush loves to refer to me as a flip flopper. Lets look at this President Bush's own record shall we. He opposed the formation of the Homeland Security Department before buckling to public pressure. Now, he takes credit for it. He and senate republicans opposed for the tax cuts to the middle class that we democrats had to fight tooth and nail to get into Bush's tax cuts which inspite of our successes still give over 95% of the money to Americans making over 200,000. He now takes credit for the middle class tax cut. He opposed to both the formation of the 9/11 commission and many of the 9/11 commissions recommendation. Thankfully, he has finally seen how they can prevent the kind of intelligence failure we had three years ago. Either that, or he buckled to public pressure. He underfunded his own education policy. I wonder what he would call these.

Iraq - No matter how many times my opponent likes to take my statements out of context. I have always expressed one very consistent position. Whether you read the full text of my speech to congress when I voted to give the president the authority to launch the war or my speech criticizing the president's decision to abuse this authority and initiate a war within a 24 hr deadline, or the many statements I have made since then. Every single one of them, when taken in context, reflects one clear position. Saddam had to be pushed, threatened, and forced by whatever means neccesary to allow the weapons inspectors into Iraq. But when he made the decision to allow them in, and the President decided that he would continue to pursue a war before they could do their job and determine if such a war was neccesary, I disagreed with his decision. The weapons inspectors should have been allowed to finish their job. Had President Bush allowed them to, maybe we would have realized that there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Had Saddam possed WMDs or was actively pursuing WMDS, allowing the inspectors the time to determine this would have allowing us to build a much stronger coalition. Just because President Bush was given the authority to declare a war does not excuse his rushing to war without atleast confirming that Saddam posed a threat to the United States. It doesn't excuse the no bid contracts to Halliburton. It doesn't excuse his refusal to hold accountable those members of his administration who sat on the information about the Abu Gai Prison Scandal for six months before it became public instead of doing something about it and not allowing it to reinvogarate the insurgancy. It doesn't excuse the pressure that president Bush had applied to CIA to prove that Saddam possessed WMDs or to link Saddam to 9/11 and Al Queda when no such link existed according to both the counterterrorism Czar under his administration Richard Clarke and Bob Woodward and many many others (say their names). And it certainly does not excuse Bush's refusal to listen to the advice of many Pentagon official and even fellow Republican senators such as John McCain, that more troops and more equipment would be needed in Iraq to win the peace. If war was neccesary, President Bush should have took the time to ensure that our troops had the resources they needed.

Marijuana - Virtually every medical study done found that marijuana is the most effective treatment for various terminal illnesses. Why has Bush appealed court decisions barring qualified patients from federal prosecution, and upholding a physician's right to discuss marijuana therapy with their patients. I thought freedom of speech was one the rights this country was built on and I want to know why he wants to take it away from doctors. I can't think of anything more unamerican. People suffering from severly debilitating diseases could live far better lives if allowed to take even small doses of marijuana. Marijuana is not addictive in any way shape or form. It is well known that marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol, cigarrettes or tobbacoo. So why is Bush dictating what doctors can prescribe to their patients? What medical qualification does Bush have to prevent docotors from doing their jobs? Bush is attempting to take on a "victim of cancer, MS, HIV or glaucoma in the eye and play moral arbiter." Worse yet, Bush is telling doctors how to do their jobs. If a doctor believes that marijuana is the most effective and least addictive/harmful treatment for a disease (as virtually every medical study done on the subject has proven), then they deserve to be able to give patients that treatment. Who the heck is Bush to tell them that they can't?

Kerry also has to do something big. He has to take strong stances, distinct very specific stances on issues, and stick to them to prove the the American people that he is a strong leader. Here are my recommendations.

Political Stance One: A renewed war on Poverty, Unemployment and Homelessness

The majority of people see that the country is headed in the wrong direction. And poverty, unemployment and homelessness all have a great deal to do with this opinion. Most Americans have seen poverty, and homelessness run rampant in our once prosperous communities over the past decade even when unemployment was low. And we are all sick of how political agendas aimed at reducing poverty and homelessness are continuously swept under the rug by politicians fearing that the issue isn't popular. There is nothing new about a war on poverty. We've addressed poverty many times in the past going as far as trying to pass an economic bill of rights sixty years ago and launching an actual war on poverty fourty years ago. Even now, we have a proposal to build millions of homes to help the poor get back on their feet that goes largely ignored by both parties. These measures against poverty helped many people get back on their feet and helped our country prosper. Everyone both rich and poor want to see these people get back on their feet, with a job and a home and a decent life. It's not just about being compassionate towards our fellow humans, it's also what's best for both our communities and our nations. Most people I talked to would love for either candidate to bring the issue to the limelight and present a clear agenda to get these people job training, day care or after school programs for their kids, educational training, transportation to areas that actually have jobs and back and forth from the job every day, clean clothing and a temporary home so that they have a second chance to make something of themselves. Importantly, it will give a reason for many of the poor Americans who feel disenfranchised by both parties a reason to vote especially if you speak out on the importance of all of those who want to see something done about poverty to come to the polls this November and vote democrats, not just for the presidency but for all offices, into power. 1.3 million more under poverty under Bush. 45 million people uninsured. These are trends we can and must reverse.

Political Stance Two: A balanced budget amendment

Under President Bush's leadership, we increased the national debt from five trillion dollars to seven trillion dollars. In just his first few months in office, months before 9/11, President Bush turned the largest surplus in history left behind by Clinton into the largest deficit in history. Thanks in large part to George Walker Bush, currently 19 cents of every dollar of your tax money goes to just paying the interest on the national debt. This 19 cents isn't being used to pay off the debt, it's merely going to pay the interest on this debt. Imagine what we can do if we had this money every year to better fund our schools, reduce the costs of healthcare and lower taxes on small businesses. Every single year under Bush, he accumulated an ever increasing record deficit. He has done nothing to control spending. If we continue down this path for four more years, our children and grandchildren will be held hostage to the debt we have accumulated. Our children will have little left to work with. This is why it is absolutely critical that we stem this ever increasing deficit here and now.

Clinton did more good for the economy, reduced poverty more, and created more jobs with specific targeted tax cuts amounting to only ---- billion to working class families small businesses, to businesses that hire more American workers while balancing the budget, than the Reagen administration, the first Bush administration and the current Bush administration combined with over ----- billion in tax cuts to millionaires, ---- billion just over the past four year. Clinton's method is the right one. Targeted tax cuts to businesses that create jobs is the best way to boost our economy and it can be done while balancing the budget. President Bush wants to make his ---- billion dollar tax cuts to people making over 200,000 an year permanent by borrowing money and cutting funding from critical areas such as healthcare and education. I don't support how president bush wants to cut spending because the money for it shouldn't come from our children's schools.

I've worked in Congress for 16 years. I know where all our tax money goes. I know about how the vast majority of the --- billion dollar drug plan went to drug companies rather than lowering the cost of drugs and the 50 million dollars in unnecessary pork spend to built a rainforest in Iowa. I know how to get it out. I know our government and I will find the money to balance the budget while properly funding our kid's education and providing targeted tax cuts that create jobs. Bush underfunded his own education plan by 2 billion dollars while passing tax cuts 90% of which went to the those making over 200,000 an year. The man doesn't have his priorities straight. You want a balanced budget so that future generations actually have money to work with. You want to spend more on improving the condition of our schools. You want targeted tax cuts that actually create jobs. You want to stop wasteful pork spending. President Bush utterly failed at all these tasks. I won't.

Political Stance Three: Increased Minimum Wage

Every family should be able to afford to send their kids to college by earning 40,000 with a two parent working family at a minimum wage job even if it means govt. subsidized day care and after school programs, higher minimum wages, more money for schools by properly funding no child left behind, and govt. subsidizes for small businesses that hire more people. Investing in our children is never a bad thing. Instead of sending troubled kids to jail, send them to military school. Troubled kids crave discipline.

Political Stance Four: Stem Cell Research

Take a clear position on the issue and related issues such as medicinal marijuana and explain it to the American people.

Political Stance Five: A responsible productive prescription drug plan

President Bush's drug plan will cost American tax payers --- billion and will still actually lead to higher drug costs and healthcare costs for --- million Americans. It's a failure. By taking a more proactive approach. By letting senior citizens import drugs from Canada and letting the govt. negotiate down drug costs, we can lower drug costs far more significantly for far lower costs.

Political Stance Six: Tort Reform

We overregulate businesses way too much. Less laws, less litigation, simpler laws and taxes is good for us all.