Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.
CNN has yet to declare a winner, and the Kerry camp has yet to concede but it seems pretty obvious Bush won. Doesn’t look like the sky has fallen, although Iraqi insurgents did celebrate by beheading 3 Iraqi soldiers. Election results show a very divided nation – let’s hope that the coming administration tries to address this with a new spirit of bi-partisanship. G*d speed!
Tip of the hat to theblows
You know, my first reaction was to be very sad and maybe shed a tear. But now that I’ve had a chance to reflect, I’ve decided that this is an opportunity and a motivator. I’m not gonna cry! Instead I’m going to strive to join the group to which Bush panders the most: the rich.
Please wish me luck.
Good luck chabibi. At least you didn’t say Christian fundamentalists. Then I’d be worried.
No need to worry on that count – Jesus was a fine Jew to the death and I will follow that example.
Kerry has just called Bush to concede. Expect an official concession speech in one hour or two.
T_M:
Look at it this way we have 4 years to get organized and elect some one who will be good for America. (My only fear is somewhere out there the Hilary ’08 signs are already being printed) In this case, I don’t really feel that bad as I didn’t think Senator Kerry was a strong enough candidate.
I think the problem may go deeper. There are three key issues, IMO: one is that the Republicans have cobbled together a number of strong interest groups (pro-lifers, fundamentalist Christians, gun lovers, etc.) which give them a strong base of support that actually votes; two is that the Republicans play to win and have no shame about playing hardball to get to victory, and; three, and most concerning to me, they now own the security and terrorism issue and from Israel’s experience, this translates to electorates that will lean rightward for a while to come.
Of course, I must weigh in.
This is a sweeping victory for Bush. He achieved a higher percentage of the vote than Clinton in either election, so he has the right to be less “bi-partisan” than Clinton. Bush also received more votes than any other candidate for President ever.
I have no urge for continued fighting between the sides, however. I will not be moving left to include anyone, and judging from some liberal blogs I’ve been reading, they are mostly calling for Civil War and a breakup of the union.
Here’s hoping calmer minds prevail.
Um, weren’t the Clinton elections a 3 way race with Perot getting enough votes to ensure that Clinton couldn’t have similar numbers to Bush?
The “larger number of voters” is also an interesting take on the fact that the population grows AND we had a little world-changing incident on 9/11.
The whole idea of this “mandate” because Bush won by a margin of about 2-3% of the popular vote, and electoral college votes amounting to a couple of hundred thousand people in some midwestern states is ridiculous.
Be honest, Bush will push through whatever he wants because he can and because he wants to. It has nothing to do with a mandate. He wasn’t sensitive to the deep rift in the country in 2000 and it looks like it’s going to get worse now that he doesn’t need to worry about re-election.
Chris Rock says it best: First the religious Bushies talk about getting the terrorists, which sounds fine to me. Then they talk about getting the Iraqis, which is also ok. Then it’s about the Arabs and not too long before they talk about getting the homosexuals. And we all know who’s next: “The niggers and the Jews.”
TM:
Every race is more than a 3-way race. We had libertarian candidates, green candidates, nader, etc. Last year nader got 2-5% of the vote depending on state, this year he got %0.5. The simple fact is, more people agree with George W. Bush today than ever did with Clinton on election day. To use your terminology, Bush then has more of a “mandate” than Clinton ever did.
To debunk your “the world grows” theory, we would be setting new vote records every election. This record was from 20 years ago.
American liberals have yet to accept the fact that the nation is less divided today than in 2000, because they can’t stand it. They want division and vapor lock. America has spoken. We’re in for 4+ more years of pure Bush goodness.
I wish you were right about the “less divided” part but 49% of the population vs. 51% of the population suggests a mighty significant split. The difference between Bush winning and losing was not large, and I would argue that were it not for the gay marriage issue, the conversation right now would be about what Kerry is about to do with Iraq.
4 more years of pure Bush goodness with Republican control of both Houses and no concern about re-election suggests that about 49% of us will be wondering what could have been if Gavin Newsom hadn’t decided to marry a few gay couples in San Francisco. Ugh!
PS the world grows was only part of my argument, and remains a valid part – just take a look at the voter population records from 1972 and compare them to now if you need further proof.
My point is is less split than before, and, as “split” as you want to call it, it’s less so than any time since 1988. It’s just a fact…look at the percentages.
I’m glad we’re able to get back to a time when John Kerry was just a nuisance.
Thank you for every other informative blog.