Election Day: T - 5Days and Counting

"I'm not in the habit of rooting against America, and that seems to be Michael Moore's core principle, regardless of where he goes in the world... He's a movie-maker that can manipulate images. You give me enough footage on a subject, and I can put together a film and have you believe anything I want. It all depends on how you put it together, the use of truths and half truths... I didn't find a single frame [in his movie] that was honest. Take the way he put the 2000 election together. All the analyses afterwards with CNN, with the Washington Post, with everybody, said that Bush would have won the election regardless of how small the margin was. And any injustices that may or may not have happened were actually on the other side, because the networks made calls that Gore won Florida before the panhandle was closed. That's a Republican area, and some people have estimated that 10,000 Bush voters did not even stand in line or go to the polls because they thought the election was already done. You see footage, and you assume that it's victory footage. You assume that Gore had won and they're celebrating. And Ben Affleck was there and Stevie Wonder, and the music was going, and they had the banner up. And Moore makes it seem like this all had to be withdrawn, this all had to be taken back after the shenanigans supposedly went on. What he failed to mention is, that footage was of a rally from before and it was not a celebration party. The whole movie is rife with that stuff... There is some funny stuff in Fahrenheit 9/11. He got a lot of mileage out of the President reading My Pet Goat. But seriously, thank God he didn't jump up and scare everyone... I liked what the President projected... I thought it was a very adult, calm projection of leadership... a lot of how he responded to it was truly courageous, rigorous leadership. It's been consistent. And most important, the enemy knows it. That's what's terribly important, because a lot of people mistake honesty for arrogance. A lot of people mistake consistency for rigidity. A lot of people mistake clarity for simplicity. And a lot of people mistake courage for stupidity. I don't. And unlike Michael and other people who said we should have gone in with overwhelming force, I think Bush understood from the Russian experience in Afghanistan that there was a better way to do it... [and] the central issue of our times is terror, and terrorist groups having access to weapons of mass destruction. There is no other issue in this election for me, and I don't think there should be for anybody. The threat is too catastrophic to even contemplate. And if we're wrong, if we don't do it right, the costs are incalculable, and history will not forgive us... Bush chose not to be surprised by the inevitable. Bush chose to stop them because it's only a matter of time before there's a nuclear weapon used on a major city with millions of people. If it never happens, great. But the odds have run too high. I'm not trusting myself or my children's safety, or our nation's safety in the hands of Michael Moore's perspective on how to protect us. I think they're in danger of being horribly wrong when the history books are written... I actually trust the President. This may shock some people, but I think this is a man of faith. I think on 9/11 he felt that he needed to do something to protect the American people. I think going on the offense is the appropriate response in this world... the Democratic leadership [has been] embracing the commercial film [of Moore's] with so many -- to be kind -- flaws. It degrades the political conversation. Because if the Democratic Party -- of which I'm a member -- finds that film acceptable, we're even more unhinged from reality in our political campaigns. So, I was very, very disappointed."

-- Ron Silver, an accomplished actor and Democratic liberal activist who believes that after 9/11 we must put national security before ideology. Quote taken from the book "FahrenHYPE 9/11" (emphasis is mine).