This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE (8-24-04)

There is one question in all this Presidential campaign that has puzzled me?

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to visit one of the best known book stores in the west......I was looking for an appropriate book for my son’s birthday.

On shelf after shelf, dealing with history and biographies, I found volume after volume lambasting President George Bush. Even one volume dealing with what they called “Bushisms”...making fun of some of the statements the President had made.

Why do so many people hate President George Bush?

Never has any President been the subject of such a diatribe of not only books, but commentaries and movies as has the current President.

I can understand the die-hard Democrats who were stunned when Al Gore wasn’t elected. Admittedly there appeared to be some irregularities in the voting in Florida....but in the final analysis George Walker Bush was proclaimed the victor. True...Gore received the majority of the popular vote, but not the electoral count.

This is not the first time in American history that a candidate has received the majority of the votes, but not been elected. However, to these die-hard Democrats...they still maintain that George Bush stole the election....that would explain, in part, their hatred of him.

However, the outpouring of hatred from the movie colony, Democrats and from even some Republicans is puzzling.

If you were not an American....but listened to the complaints, criticism and outright lies about the current President, you would certainly not have much respect for not only America, but also for the democratic process by which he became President.

President Bush rallied the nation after the terrorist attacks on the World Towers...and the Pentagon. The nation was united in the effort that defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan. This even as our military were defending a no-fly zone in Iraq that was constantly being violated by Iraqi forces.

The United Nations had time and again warned Saddam Hussein of Iraq about his weapons of mass destruction...which he had used previously on the Iranians and his own people. They sent in group after group of inspectors trying to find those weapons...or at least find out what had happened to them....all to no avail.

Then President Bush went before the United Nations and they passed a resolution that Hussein should disclose the fate of these weapons of mass destruction or face the consequence. There again was no consequence and nations such as Germany and France voted against it. France’s veto stopped the U.N. from further action....again.

The Congress passed authorization for the President to take military action...something even John Kerry approved. Acting on what critics now say was erroneous information....the President did take action...and our men and women in the military disposed of the Republican Guard of Iraq in quick order.

Then came the primaries for the Democrats....and individuals like Howard Dean began calling the President a liar, a hypocrite and much more. Other Democratic hopefuls got on the same bandwagon, including Kerry. Their vituperous comments over the next four months ignited a firestorm of hatred for the President among party faithfulls.

In our view the “hate Bush” campaign began with those first Democratic hopefuls and has been further buttressed by movies, books and commentaries.

It would seem now that “hatred” has made the full political turn.

My feeling is that the Vietnam Vets anti-Kerry campaign is motivated by hatred for the way Kerry accused and described his fellow veterans during his anti-Vietnam war testimony. I really think these fellow “swift boat” veterans are getting even.

Hatred can be a devastating emotion....that confuses the mind, but controls the emotions.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.