Wednesday, November 03, 2004
...and the winner is...
...George W. Bush, by rather more than a nose.
I'm pleased (and impressed) by Kerry's concession -- even more so, in the face of Edwards strongly advising him not to do so. (That's Edwards, playing to his stereotype and acting the trial lawyer, not the politician, and especially not the Vice-Presidential candidate.)
In my opinion, by conceding more or less when it was clear that the game was over, Kerry showed more class than I knew he had in him.
It's been a bitter fight, in many different ways. I'll be looking for some interesting developments, going forward from here.
- Kerry told Bush, in his 11AM telephone call, that it had been "a divisive campaign", and that it was time to work to "bring the country together". Bush agreed. We'll have to watch to see what both candidates do, from here onwards, toward that end.
- I haven't seen any European reactions yet, but they're likely to be interesting. Yes, folks, we re-elected the cowboy; we re-elected the blunt, un-nuanced man who never learned to speak French.
- And now, the gloves come off! We don't know that for a fact; if Bush's second term is a disappointment, he certainly wouldn't be the first President to do so. But I'm expecting him to pursue his foreign agenda a lot more vigorously, now that he doesn't need to worry about re-election. I expect the news vis-a-vis Syria, and Iran, and Saudi Arabia to get interesting.
- In re our enemies, there's this:
Yep, there'll be some nail-biting in Falluja today!
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
