Wednesday, 3 November 2004
"America has spoken...."
Well old Dubya got his wish for 4 more years (god help us) after the American people voted to re-elect him this morning. John Kerry, in an emotional speech, conceeded defeat at about 2pm Eastern Time with George W Bush accepting his victory about an hour later.
Despite the problems in Iraq from which there appears no early way out and the failure of his administration to capture Osama Bin Laden who openly goaded it this weekend in his latest video release, a record loss of jobs during his first 4 years and trillions of dollars of national debt, Bush's win was by a larger margin than was expected with 274 electoral votes to 252. In the popular vote the difference was 3,581,355, about 3%.
At the end of the day the American people like it simple, they liked Bush's moral values and the fact that he banged on about God a lot. His unerring position on terrorism struck a proud cord with American's and his belief's and his consistent stance on Iraq, some would call it stubborness, won him votes.
It was the largest turnout since 1968 with 120m people voting. The voting map of the USA tells its own story in my dumb but inquisitive English mind. The so called metropolitan, cosmopolitan and financial area's of the country, i.e. the North East Coast, the MidWest and the West Coast are completely Democrat whilst the South and the old Confederacy states and it's border states of Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia are a sea of red.
For Kerry, whose lack of charisma is being blamed for the defeat even though voters acknowledge his intelligence, something that might be important in leading some countries but clearly not here, will, however stay in the Senate unlike his running mate John Edwards who won't. Back to making millions in the law courts for him.
Right, that's me done with politics for a while. Bring on 2008 and Hilary Clinton and local rising star Barack Obama whose name is on everyone's lips. I've been saying it since I got here (see) but even the BBC have got hold of it. Barack Obama - future President of the USA. Watch this space.
¶ 17:05
Well old Dubya got his wish for 4 more years (god help us) after the American people voted to re-elect him this morning. John Kerry, in an emotional speech, conceeded defeat at about 2pm Eastern Time with George W Bush accepting his victory about an hour later.
Despite the problems in Iraq from which there appears no early way out and the failure of his administration to capture Osama Bin Laden who openly goaded it this weekend in his latest video release, a record loss of jobs during his first 4 years and trillions of dollars of national debt, Bush's win was by a larger margin than was expected with 274 electoral votes to 252. In the popular vote the difference was 3,581,355, about 3%.
At the end of the day the American people like it simple, they liked Bush's moral values and the fact that he banged on about God a lot. His unerring position on terrorism struck a proud cord with American's and his belief's and his consistent stance on Iraq, some would call it stubborness, won him votes.
It was the largest turnout since 1968 with 120m people voting. The voting map of the USA tells its own story in my dumb but inquisitive English mind. The so called metropolitan, cosmopolitan and financial area's of the country, i.e. the North East Coast, the MidWest and the West Coast are completely Democrat whilst the South and the old Confederacy states and it's border states of Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia are a sea of red.
For Kerry, whose lack of charisma is being blamed for the defeat even though voters acknowledge his intelligence, something that might be important in leading some countries but clearly not here, will, however stay in the Senate unlike his running mate John Edwards who won't. Back to making millions in the law courts for him.
Right, that's me done with politics for a while. Bring on 2008 and Hilary Clinton and local rising star Barack Obama whose name is on everyone's lips. I've been saying it since I got here (see) but even the BBC have got hold of it. Barack Obama - future President of the USA. Watch this space.
¶ 17:05
