A few months ago, an email arrived with a photo of President Bush consoling a young girl who had lost her mother in the South Tower of the World Trade Centers. The photo was an impromptu snapshot taken by her father at a rally in Ohio in May, 2004. The story, as told in The Washington Dispatch, is a true glimpse at the heart of the president:

“As the president passed the group, Mr. Faulkner got an autograph, and the president continued on until [Faulkner’s friend] Linda Prince spoke up, “This girl lost her mother on 9/11,” Prince told the president. 

Then everything changed.

“The president’s entire expression transformed,” Mr. Faulkner told me on Sunday.  “He turned and came back against the flow and his eyes locked on Ashley’s.  His face showed a man who was no longer the president, he was a father and a husband.”  President Bush made his way back to Ashley and he embraced the 15-yeal old young woman.  “She snuggled in with the president just like she did when she was a little girl with her dad,” Mr. Faulkner said.  “I know it’s hard,” Mr. Faulkner heard the president tell his daughter.  “I’m okay,” Ashley told the president.  The embrace continued.” (Read the complete story.)

Now this moment, which was reluctantly captured by her father, has become the basis for a unique campaign ad to run in at least nine states for the next few weeks. The Progress for America Voter Fund, the 527 that created the ad, has announced they will spend more than $14 million airing it. Taking a turn away from negative attack ads, this tells the tragic story about a young girls loss and the compassion of the President, says the group’s president, Brian McCabe. “Most political messages in October are harsh and negative,” McCabe said. “We’re going in the opposite direction to … highlight what everyone knows and likes about President Bush.”

Other links:

• Read about Ashley’s mother, Wendy Faulkner, and the Memorial Children’s Foundation.
• See the USA Today article about the ad.
• See the “Ashley’s Story” Ad and Website

From FactCheck.org:

It’s not Bush’s plan, and it wouldn’t cut benefits.

Summary

A Kerry ad claims “Bush has a plan to cut Social Security benefits by 30 to 45 percent.” That’s false. Bush has proposed no such plan, and the proposal Kerry refers to would only slow down the growth of benefits, and only for future retirees. It was one of three possible “reform models” detailed by a bipartisan commission in 2001.

The ad also says nothing about what Kerry would do to address the troubled state of Social Security finances. Unless taxes are increased, the system’s trustees say currently scheduled benefits would have to be cut 32%

Read the full article.

We’ve talked about this before, but a recent rash of phishing attempts that I’ve received have prompted me to bring it up again. “Phishing” is an attempt by some unauthorized person to get you to voluntarily surrender sensitive information. While phishing cons have been around forever, the attacks have taken a new electronic form using email. Here’s how it works:

You’ll get an official-looking email from your bank (or eBay, or some other company with which you might do business. As one of the largest US banks, Citibank has been a popular target.) When you open the email, it directs you to an online form under the pretenses of preventing loss of your personal information, or updating their records, or verifying your PIN, etc. The point is, everything looks official — even after you click the link and go to an address that looks correct, too. (It might be something like http://citibank.bankrecords.com/account_update.html). The problem is, the message you received and the form that you fill out aren’t owned by Citibank (or any other legitimate entity.) And when you fill out the form, you essentially surrender all the information necessary for someone to steal your identity, a problem that could cost you thousands of dollars and years to correct.

Here’s the bottomline: No company that you do business with will contact you (unsolicited) via email to ask for things like your SSN, pin number, or even your Internet login information; they already have it. If you receive a request like this that you haven’t initiated, pick up the phone and call them.

It’s interesting how things travel on the Internet. I received an article today that was written by Jeremiah Denton, a retired Navy Admiral and Senator from Alabama. If you’ve got a minute, you can read a quick biography here. Without going into too much detail, here are some highlights of Jeremiah’s life that might give you some perspective:

In June 1965, he was assigned to Attack Squadron 75 on the USS Independence flying the Grumman A-6 Intruder. On 18 July 1965, while pulling up after leading a bombing attack on enemy installations near Thanh Hoa, he was shot down and captured by North Vietnamese troops. While held prisoner, Denton became the first American subjected to four years of solitary confinement. In 1966, during a television interview by the North Vietnamese and broadcast on American television, Denton gained national attention when, while being questioned, he blinked his eyes in Morse code, repeatedly spelling out the covert message “T-O-R-T-U-R-E”. During his captivity he frequently served as the senior American military officer in numerous camps in and around Hanoi.

In November 1980, Denton became the first retired flag officer ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

Now, the reason I bring all of this up…

I received an article written by Admiral Denton that appeared in the Mobile (Alabama) Register on March 10, 2004. In it, the Admiral addressed his concerns about John Kerry running the country; concerns that he expresses in a clear, concise, truthful, and relevant manner. You see, Admiral Denton was a Democrat who has switched parties. He also served in the Senate with Kerry. Beyond his criticism of Kerry, he speaks eloquently about how we are engaged in the battle for the “soul of America” and how many politicians today seem bent on “abandoning our historical effort to be “one nation under God” in favor of becoming “one nation without God,” with glaringly unfavorable results.” Stop whatever you’re doing today and read the full text here.

Now, while researching the origins of this email, I was reminded of another issue related to the good Admiral that I could hardly believe (but have subsequently found to be true.) The Democratic-controlled California Assembly refused to allow Admiral Denton speak on the floor and thusly cancelled any Independence Day celebration this year. Read an account of the situation on WorldNetDaily or the memo written by California Assemblyman John Campbell.

With only a few weeks left, I think it’s important to re-visit the whole candidate issue. My liveliest political conversations often come at the hands (expense of?) my friend, Tom Gasta, who — though often diametrically opposed to whatever I think — normally ends a conversation with, “I don’t think we’re all that different on the big issues.” I suspect he’s right. The problem, of course, is the definition of the “big issues”.

I’ve tried several of the candidate selectors available online, some good, some awful. I think my favorite is the one at President Match. After going through the entire questionairre, you’ll then have the opportunity to see side-by-side comparisons of the candidates. After completing this exercise, I can see why the Nation is so divided on this election. The problem is (at least, this is what I think the problem is…) that very few of us see things as black and white. While we might favor a stance on one issue, we could easily hold the opposite stand on another. And many of these things we might “somewhat support” or “somewhat oppose” and the candidate “strongly supports” or “strongly opposes”. So, in the end, although tools like these are helpful, we’re left to our own devices to make a decision. And when we get to that point, all of the intangibles that can’t be articulated or measured swing into play. Issues like morality, character, principles.

I’m interested to know how you scored, so be sure to let me know. In the interest of full disclosure, I was 51% Bush, 39% Kerry. But I can easily see after viewing the comparison that a couple of nudges in either direction on just a few issues would sway the results. Interesting…