Talk Elections

If only my great grandparents could be around to see the Protestants and Catholics join together for Bush's victory. 

I fear for our country and our society.  I only hope it can withstand four more years.  Somehow, maybe, we can get through this debacle.  Let's all hope so.

From MSNBC News today:

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Kerry, who plans to shortly make a public concession speech, called the president around 11 a.m. ET, officials in both camps said.

"Congratulations, Mr. President," Kerry said in the conversation described by sources as lasting less than five minutes. One of the sources was Republican, the other a Democrat.

The Democratic source said Kerry told Bush the country was too divided and Bush agreed. “We really have to do something about it,” Kerry said, according to the official.

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We really have to do something about it.

I supported Bush over Kerry.

After 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, I believed that it was possible that, in spite of his poor speaking ability, Bush might be seen in twenty years as one of the great American Presidents, based on his resuscitation of the great Wilsonian quest to bring new lands to democracy and peace.

But Bush can never be a great President while leaving 48% of the voting American public feeling angry and marginalized.

To be one of the great ones, he must communicate to those across the red-blue divide his vision of being American based more on our historical values of freedom, opportunity, and tolerance than on any partisan religious teachings.

In a second term, he would have back off from some of the obvious alliances with religious groups and extraction industries that have caused so much venom among his opponents.

If, as I expect, he doesn't, he invites political backlash and a further intensifying of this see-saw polarization, regardless of his accomplishments in fighting our terrorist enemies.