Are character tiers really that important?

I mean, everyone is calling G.W.Bush a low-tier character, and I have to disagree. Sure, he has no good close up attacks, no strong and fast jabs, as we saw in the debates. All he has is a weak little poke with the 'flip-flop stab', but I beg to differ that it's not all that bad. If he lands a counterhit, his opponent (typically J.Kerry) is dumbfounded, and that opens him up for a bigger, more damaging combo. Bush has plenty of power hitting attacks, but his problem is just that he's too slow. He needs a good flipflop/WMD setup to open the way to his bigger, more damaging flowcharts. Once he lands the flipflop stab, then he puts his opponent into option selecting, where they either have to evade the canned one-two combination of their voting records and national security, or take the hit from his frustratingly overpowered "Faith Smackdown", as it is callled. All in all, Bush is actually a pretty high-tier character. It just takes him a little time to get going, and in the hands of an experienced handler, he's downright devastating.

Kerry is definately upper tier though. He's got a lot of potent jabs for all ranges, with rolling back tax cuts, job records, and war records to cover all his bases. He can sit and throw pokes all day long, and only the most seasoned, experienced and crafty opponents will be able to slip through. Kerry's biggest weakness is his recovery; he takes hits a little harder than the rest, and that leaves him open for bigger followups from some of the slower characters, like Bush. His stamina also has a tendancy to drop midway through a fight as his opponents find out more about his service records, but after that his GUTS level increases and so he's able to take a bit more punishment than he should at the end of the round.