Outstanding. Sometimes it's heartening to be proven wrong. John Kerry proved himself in the last to be a statesman who was unwilling to put us through a repeat of the debacle of 2000. He has conceded to George Bush and we can and should move on with the business of the nation.
The President won because the people who supported him did so enthusiastically while Kerry could not inspire the same kind of loyalty and energy...a lot of his votes were, I think, not as for him as they were against Bush. That's really not a way to win the Presidency...and indeed it proved not to be the path.
The next four years will be pivotal in setting the agenda for the future of this country. The President has, for whatever reason, inspired the enmity of many international friends and allies...including and especially in the ascendant European Union...and it will be interesting to see where we go from here as George W. Bush tries, as second term Presidents are wont to do, to set his "legacy" firmly into place.
The conflict in Iraq will have to be resolved somehow, our floundering economy will have to be addressed, and the Supreme Court will be remade (with repercussions that will linger for years to come)...we can only hope that, since he has the job, President Bush is up to the tasks. I personally have my doubts (the President has often proven to be willfully myopic, irrationally arrogant, and infuriatingly intractable) ...but whatever way it goes, I continue to believe that the center will hold and the country will survive. I may naive in believing this...but I don't care, I have faith that this country can continue to strive forward despite, rather than because of, whomever we elect to lead us.
3 comments:
They made such a big deal about how important EVERY vote is. This was pushed exceptionally hard for this election. Looking at CNN.com, I see a majority of the states with a slim 1% margin.
Without throwing a hissy fit or dragging out the inevitable, Kerry could have and should have waited for "every vote counts" to be counted. He just quit; let his people down.
What good is his ego going to do us tomorrow?
Kerry could indeed have waited...challenged every vote...but I have to assume that he has people around him (and around the country) who added up the numbers and saw that the chances of them prevailing were slim to non-existent.
As disappointed as his supporters are (and indeed have a right to be), John Kerry is, when it gets down to it, much more a pragmatic politician than he is an idealistic crusader so it should be no surprise when he cuts his losses on moves on without kicking up a ruckus.
Michael Moore sends out an e mail, and he ended his last one with this.
"Feeling better? I hope so. As my friend Mort wrote me yesterday, My Romanian grandfather used to say to me, 'Remember, Morton, this is such a
wonderful country -- it doesn't even need a president!'"
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