This has been the most exciting and probably the most important election of my life time. I have many memorable moments cheering for Bush & the Boys and sneering at the hapless Moose and Squirrel.
Here are a few of my favorite memories, in no particular order.
What are yours?

1.) Rather-gate and the Pajamahadeen

2.) P–Diddy, Apparently Mr. Diddy has no teenagers of his own or he would have realized. Young people are shonuff gonna show up for free concerts and kewl “Vote or Die” swag.
But stand in line for 4 hours to choose the next leader of the free world? BAHAHAHAHAHa , …attention span, duh !

3.) I found it fascinating that Kerry ran as “I’m NOT Bush” not realizing Bush was going to run AS Bush. . . perplexing isn’t it.

4.) Al Franken (insert any quote here or just repeat his name three times) ..see the misfortune of others IS funny.

5.) Moral Values issues on the ballot. I could concede gay marriage if my fellow Americans so choose, ..never if mandated by liberal judges.

6.) The fatherly spankin` Dick "Jedi Master" Cheney gave to the young padawan trial lawyer in the Veep debate.
If you listen closely you could even hear the echoes, “You don’t want to be vice-president.” . . . “No I don’t” . . . “You want to go home and rethink you life.” . . .“Y-e-s, I do”

7.) “You Know Where I Stand”, GWB at the RNC (I've never felt more proud to be an American)

8.) The utter filth of self loathing disgust Michael Moore felt at 5:00AM Nov 3rd after hearing Florida and Ohio being called for Bush and pounding down two dozen day old 7-Eleven jelly filled donuts. …damn I just made my self a little sick

9.) Zell Miller challenging Chris Mathews to a duel.

10.) Jibjab.com

11.) The mental picture of Carville & Begala manning the phones in a GOTV campaign for some city councilman down in Podunk Mississippi.

12.) The collective “OH SHIT !” coming out of every dank cave and terrorist haven from here to the Hindu Kush.

..can’t wait for Hillary in '08

Not to be a downer, but I'm still smarting over that first debate. Had Bush been even passably prepared for that one, the election would have been over in September.

The Swift Vets were brutally effective. I think, in the end, they'll be judged the most effective PAC or advocacy group in history, and I think Bush just might owe his re-election to them.

Good on the Swift Vets.

As the Klingon proverb goes, "Revenge is a dish best served cold."

Odd, I just wrote about this on my blog, ace. The future of the opposition party, that is.

I just watched Tucker carlson's show on PBS. Mostly because I couldn't find the remote control, but he had Paul Begala on and I was reminded that Begala is not fool. He is a Texan after all, even if he is a liberal.

He is amazing non offensive when he is not screaming like Sam Kennison. Tucker asked him where they were going to find a new candidate. He says, not in washington, not a senator, and preferably from a red state. I am sure Hillary was thrilled one of their cronies was saying such a thing.

Since John Kerry lost, the Democrats are considering running another

a) liberal
b) northeast
c) senator

in 2008. The GOP could run anyone but Keyes and win.

Anybody else feel like it's just starting to sink in that we really, really won? As though this victory's magnitude will dawn only slowly, and true joy rise carefully, solidly with the measured pace of weeks and months?

I've said it a number of times, in a number of places, but we desperately need a vigorous multi-party system in the US, and we need news media we can trust.

The most significant things I've seen so far from the Left and the media has been disdain for those who voted for Bush, ludicrous claims that Bush stole Ohio, pictures and stories of disaffected losers in Berkeley burning effigies, and tonight, Chris Matthews on Hardball claiming that the solution would be for the east- and west-coast media machines to reach out to the rest of America to find out what they think, using "foreign correspondents".

Perhaps soon, they can realize that there's a reason they (the Left & the MSM) lost, and it's none of the above. And perhaps they can avoid degenerating into the punchline to a joke, like the British Tories and the UK Guardian have. Because, frankly, without valid opposition parties, we'll be in deep shit, no matter how proper the re-election of Bush is today.

We don't need to be told how to think, we need to be told what happens, pure and simple. We don't have a media complex we can count on for that. This, too, must change, and soon. Perhaps this past week was the first step along that road?

I'll be honest. This is how I decided for whom to vote (this was done over time and is not scientific so don't go there): I asked twelve each Bush and Kerry supporters to name their candidate's top ten accomplishments. Bush's people named three to six and were semi-accurate. Kerry's people (all twelve) could not name one other than "3 Purple Hearts", when I told them that only counted as one, to a person they then went off on Bush (you know, standard insane rants number 12, 37, 1701, 1, 99, 5, and my fav: 3). Second part of my two part process was a mental exercise on my part to assess the candidate by characterizing his enemies. This is my tweaked way of using the enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend thing. Bush's worst enemy (my opinion): Michael Moore. Kerry's worst enemy (again, my opinion): SBVT. Now for the data reduction process. In the Q&A part of my process, I didn't really care what their answers were, I was interested in *how* they answered. The Bushies were thoughful for the most part and humble when they could not answer more, I got one negative comment about 'liberal weiners'. Kerry's Kyds were a different bag of goo. Though I don't hate Kerry and was at the time trying to learn more about him by studying the company he keeps if you will, I was taken aback by the shrieking, hateful, almost psychotic responses I got. Again, nothing whatsoever on their candidate, but vile, bile, and lies (sounds like a liberal law firm) about Bush and his supporters hurled with jihadic force. Ok, round one goes Bush. Round two: Let's see: Mr. Moore vs. SBVT. Two microseconds later, Mr. Bush was my candidate.

For some reason, now it's all over, it's like I'm even more fascinated by everything political. Particularly, I'm wondering if the Democrats will ever really get it.

Was Clinton the last shrewd politician to come out of that party? Because it looks like so far all I'm seeing are increasingly "out there" speculations about what's wrong with the red states. You know people are passing around a map of the free vs. slave states circa the 1800s, and comparing it to the red/blue maps? I shit you not. That's what they got out of this whole deal. Not, "Maybe people are tired of the media lying to them." Not, "Maybe people don't want to place that much faith in the UN." No, they're talking slavery. Didn't we end that, what, almost 150 years ago? I thought liberals were all about dreams for the future? What in the world?

And like Soros going to a monastery to "reflect on what's wrong with the country"--hey clueless, monasteries are for reflecting upon the greatness of God and YOUR OWN failings, not the failings of others. But hell, we knew he was crazy. Maybe I shouldn't count that one.

I thought they couldn't get any nuttier, some of the lefties. I really thought they'd taken insanity as far as it could go. I really thought they'd finally wind up running out of Kool-Aid--because normally, when you mess up and lose, aren't you supposed to reassess your own performance and try to figure out where you blew it? That may be happening in some corners, I am not trying to be uncharitable, but I am not seeing as much reevaluation as I had hoped. Instead they're trying to answer questions like, "Well, is it that red-staters are bigoted? Or is it that they're stupid?" Talk about asking the wrong questions.

Posted on a newsgroup I frequent:

"Bush (or his policy) is hated by half of the country."

My response:

"Actually, that can't be proven at all. Forty percent of eligible
voters didn't feel strongly enough about it either way to even voice their
opinions at the polls. The case could equally be made therefore that
Bush is opposed by only about thirty percent of eligible voters."

Before this election (and 9/11 specifically) I could honestly say I didn't give a flying ratshit about politics. The closest I came to "caring" was when bubba diddled the intern - I didn't know he lied under oath or any of that crap (at the time) but it just struck me as something the President shouldn't do. That was my intro to politics. However, after this foray into what politics can turn into, I consider myself a MUCH more critical voter. I have a newfound appreciation for what it takes to just get shit done in this country. All the BS that Bush has put up with, and has not even dignified with a response in the past couple years has been utterly humbling. What would *YOU* do if a Michael Moore was out convincing people that you were Hitler, worse than Osama and was probably planting thoughts in feeble-minded retards that you should be offed. Yet I'm not sure Bush has ever once even acknowledged MM exists. Heh.

I guess I'm just glad that I can no longer consider myself ignorant. I learned a lot about "critical thinking" and learning how to ask Socratic questions - things I probably should have learned in 16 years of schooling, but didn't. :/ Though I've got a long way to go, I definitely see myself participating more in future elections - knowing what the alternatives are now and knowing just how high the stakes can be (post 9/11 world).

Right now, I couldn't care less who's going to be Pres in '08 I'm really super-excited to see what the hell Dubya's going to do about the Norks/Cuba/Iran/Syria etc etc. I think these coming four years are going to be very trying, but will go down in the history books as "the shit that needed to go down". I'm enthralled with the thought of being HERE, NOW.

My election memories include worry about what the Bush administration would do if it won. I supported RINO Bush only because a Kerry administration would be historically, immeasurably worse. Here’s my own short list of what may await unless true conservatives can keep Bush on a short leash:

**** Bush cuts another UN/Brahimi-style deal and fails to clear the towns in the Sunni Triangle. We leave behind an entrenched, Iran-backed insurgency that compromises the January election and destabilizes Iraq over the long term. We sow the wind, the Iraqi people reap the whirlwind – permanently.

**** Bush puts a couple of David Souter-types (or worse) onto the Supreme Court. (Is that why Bush was pulling for Specter’s nomination in the primaries – to get a Judiciary Committee Chairman he could trust with this so that Bush is insulated from the fallout?)

**** Iran gets nukes because Bush continues to do absolutely nothing to prevent it.

**** Colin Powell gets even more authority and latitude to undermine the doctrine of preemptive warfare. We fail to achieve regime change in terror-backing countries, and oh-so-delicately decline to strongarm the halfhearted, with the result that we fail to win the WOT.

**** Careerist Republicans draft a homegrown version of Kyoto in an effort to take the issue away from their political opponents. The bill is an utter fiasco for the nation. Bush signs it, just like he signed Campaign Finance Reform.

**** The Republicans pander to the ethnic vote by tabling an open-borders bill (no, they won’t call it that), the Democrats leap at it, and we are overrun with immigrants. As any person picked at random off the sidewalk could have told the White House, these people do not vote conservative. State-level politicians stampede to win immigrant allegiance by giving them benefits.

**** The State Department – yes, the same folks who recognized the foreign election observers – cede important aspects of our sovereignty to international bodies.

**** The administration sells out Taiwan to communist China, proving that Powell was not off the reservation during his recent, disastrous trip to the Orient.

**** The administration, and Republicans generally, continuing to run scared in front of the environmental lobby, do nothing to open up federal land and offshore areas for oil exploration.

**** The administration rolls out a raft of No Child Left Behind-style boondoggles that unwisely expand the role of Washington and carry a huge, permanent, annual cost.

**** State-level Republicans do jack shit to structure their respective electoral processes to impede vote fraud, and we all pay the price for their timidity and laziness.

**** Just as the wobbles and blue-suit liberalism of Bush ’41 gave us eight years of Bill, the consensus-building and easy-way-outism of Bush ’43 gives us eight years of Hillary.

Ace,

Not too much to add.

The blogosphere has been entertaining, distracting, comforting, informative, essential, and in retrospect worthwhile these last 36+ months for me.

Having said that, the experience of 9-11 pace Michelle Catalano, has been exhausting, too.

I simply cannot bear, nor care to think of the wreck that is the Democratic Party, a party that I grew up in and supported strongly, although not exclusively, for almost 30 years.

There were many times that I thought America's will was going to wane to the point that she would elect John Forbes Kerry as President.

For all the elation that is due W. and his supporters (I myself volunteered on behalf of my state's Republican Party), I cannot help to think that this is, or should be, a very solemn victory.

War is upon us.

Our soldiers will me maimed and killed.

We yet may still be attacked.

Israel is in peril.

The whole world is in peril.

The calculus of prosecuting the GWOT is cruel and terrible.

Yet fight we must.

Win we must.

Yes, let the Republicans lead, as they were chosen by us to do so.

And yes, when America comes together, there is no limit to her greatness.

Coming together does not mean compromise. Coming together is just that.

I can abide by drilling for oil in Anwar, or school choice, or cutting the marginal tax rate.

Fine.

But come together America and let us fight this war and win.

'Nuff said.

I know of a four letter word that starts with C and ends with T. Make it plural, and you pretty much have an idea of what I think about the left as a whole after this election. They don't realize that hate only begets hate (see my first line). They will never win that way. And the more they try, the more losses they deserve.

There's no way HRC gets elected unless the republicans nominate some loon like David Duke or Lyndon Laruche. You could run a Mr. Potato Head doll against HRC and she'd be crushed by the silent majority that would come out in force. She's every bit as treasonous as Kerry and twice and vicious, and most of her exploits are on the record somewhere.

There is no kissie make up with the dems (had they won there would be no kissie make up with us!) This is modern America - raw and real. The left IS brain dead. We need to salvage as many as will join us and get on with it. Our enemies should know better than to take us on. It's WW3 folks - let's be smart and win.

My Perspective:
Look at a vote-by-county map of Texas, find the one lone patch of blue in the center of the state... that's where I am. Where I work, I'd say 90% of the people I'd come in contact with on a daily basis were Anti-Bush, many rabidly so. Yeah, I feel pretty contented, at the moment.

What stands out:
The Media. Bias by omission and bias by commission. In a perfect world there is a balance to this, but NEWSFLASH- Most people get their news from the MSM, and the majority of them probably couldn't describe a blog at gunpoint. Still, blogs were definitely a force in this election cycle.

Lefty Artists (MM, P-diddle, Bruuuce, Hollywood)... Not so Much. I think this is where the "values" thing comes in. Not so much in making someone vote against the left, but as in having no relevance to the average voter.

Values? eh, I don't buy it. Seems like an issue the MSM can talk about instead of the one they don't want to talk about- the WoT.

Speaking of the WoT/Iraq... Notice the parade of democrats talking about how Iraq is a Quagmire, the elections will never happen, and in two years we'll be even more screwed over there. Yup, their strategy is still hoping for us to fail...

On the Bright Side, I've noticed that suddenly the economy is better, the soldiers in Iraq are more determined, and George Bush is now "our" Moron. Oh, and I can now read (most of) the NYT, again.

We've got a long way to go. Domestically, we've got judges, tax reform, and Social Security reform. Throw in some Welfare/Food Stamp reform to make me happy. Then there is Homeland Security, border control, and immigration issues. And the primary issue still remains: The War... which will likely be the primary issue for a decade to come.

At least, we've chosen the right captain to steer the ship of state through stormy waters.

Heh

well, we got what we wanted, for 40 years - more or less - the dems have had a run of this country. It was not a paltry job overall and has some very high accomplishments in there somewhere. But there are some utter failures.

the welfare state comes to mind as the worst. what may have begun as a noble effort ended in disaster.

as conservatives, we better be right!!!

which means we will have to work twice as hard and twice as long to set the example, get the message out to more americans and insure that as many as humanly possible enjoys the ride.

we have to better than the next man in every way, more humble, more gracious, harder working, more giving, more educated, more eloquent, etc

we got what we asked for, now lets give what we promised

Until yesterday (Nov. 5th) I fantasized about a new Democratic Party. I was encouraged by the first coverage by the MSM. CNN and MSNBC seemed to be admitting Bush had some sort of a mandate, and were bringing on guests who were somber, subdued, and who reflectively admitted the DNC had some soul searching to do. Apparently, when it comes to self-analysis, they are a quick study. It looks like they're done.

My fantasy has the Dems' leadership actually doing the work to reach out to middle America. I imagined the far-left fringe groups--most of whom are well and truly marxist or even eco-anarchists--becoming disenchanted with the DNC, and increasingly breaking away to raise their own quirky banners. I hoped for a rift to occur in the Democratic Party somewhere far to the left, and I hoped that the rift between the Democrats and flyover country could be healed.

I believe I was mistaken. There will be rifts and rifts, but the loudmouths of the party are, at this point, continuing to hold common ground with the far left. What's more disturbing is that the party's leadership is now starting to rally to their "base". Today we're told that actually Bush has no mandate. Today we Bush voters are hearing that we're idiots, or gun-crazy suicidal nationalists, or fat, lazy rednecks. They talk about the blue states as a foreign country. They moan about wanting to secede from the Union. They screech that they're the ones who will have to live with Bush's policies; it wasn't middle America that was hit by terrorist planes!

Democrats, for Pete's sweet sake, pull your selves together. We are one nation. When, in the aftermath of 9/11's carnage, Rudy Guliani said, "today we are all citizens of New York," we in the red states nodded soberly and muttered "fuckin' aye" under our breath. You east-coast/left-coast blue-state liberals were, on that day, our fellow citizens, our neighbors, our friends, our family. So stop this shit about you bearing the brunt of the war on terrorism. The brunt is being borne tonight on the outskirts of Fallujah, by tough young men and women who hail from every state of the union, both blue and red.

We need you to sober up, get serious, get relevant and offer credible balance to the Republican party. I have a dream of a healthy two-party political system, but today you're pissing on it.

(Damn, I should've put this on myblog. Ace, you tricked me!)

Ace,

That last paragraph by Joel is pretty much the sentiment I share. I never doubted that Bush would lose to Lurch, or anyone the Dems put up. They are a party with NO direction or beliefs anymore. The only belief they have is the credo of He-Man...'I AM THE POWER!!!'
It's amazing to see my family members who are Dems, believing everything from the demagogplaybook of Moore, and such. Not one will question wether or not the charges are true, or bother to look further into the body politic. At least my Wife is smart enough to dwelve into these things, and she' Still a Dem, but not a kool-aid drinker.
After living through 9-11/ I thought for sure, the country would unite. And it has... regardless of what we are hearing now from the Media and Left. They are in Denial.

We'll continue to live in Reality.

Best Ace/ Joe

The media war is just beginning. The leaking of bad poll numbers through blogs is our foretaste of the counterattacks to come, as the MSM (Microsoft-style) do everything they can to protect their monoculture's monopoly.

In a way this feels like the day after we took Baghdad -- a victory, yes, but then what? What are our metrics for success (in the "MSM v. Kid Internet" bout) from here on out? What further resistance will we find? Jay Cost observes, rightly, that

The only group among which Bush seems to have under-performed relative to 2000 was independent voters, who are most frequently affected by the mainstream media’s coverage.

Most of us will probably tune out for a while; I hope it won't turn out to have been for too long.

Funniest thing: realizing that the blogging-will-change-the-world nuts were too busy crying over Howard Dean to realize that, yes, it has changed politics. But for the other guys.

I feel like the Democratic Party has changed at the root. It seems utterly dominated by screamers, sophisticators, liars, phonies, unAmericans, cheaters, traitors, thugs, cowards, hatchetmen, moonbats, commies, old commies, fatcat parasites, self-promoting superrich, flimflammers, grandma scarers, elitists, issue fabricators, little thinkers, celebribrats, scammers, boilerroom fraudsters, dirty tricksters, journalism perverters, photo-op politicians, teeth-and-hair prettyboys, coastal cronies, reeducators, deluded dreamers, Ecoweenies, history rewriters, income redistributers, Constitution shredders, tax-and-spenders, single-issue simpletons, pubic servants, newspeakers, the cultured uncultured, campaign law violators, crooked judges, fifth-columnists, shouter-downers, pitbulls, intolerants, bookstore bums, tire-slashers, pride paraders, sign stealers, poseurs, race hustlers, smug academics, decorum debasers, pinstripe punks, institutional careerists, entitlists, more-gifted-than-thou's, artistes, disinformers, obstructionists, agitpropers, rude people, litigators, haters, terror sympathizers, Starbucks fascists, and Arkansas white trash.

I know of a four letter word that starts with C and ends with T. Make it plural, and you pretty much have an idea of what I think about the left as a whole after this election.

On behalf of coots everywhere, I'd like to say that I deeply resent this comparison.

I'm fervently hoping that now that W doesn't have to worry about re-election, he'll put forth a moe conservative domestic agenda. Like his tax cuts, but dislike his pandering to Teddy Kennedy and the hispanics (and I don't think there's any evidence that it paid off in the election).

As far as the election itself, I continue to be amazed at how many on the left are reacting by shrilly screeching about how dumb those of us who voted for Bush are. Not exactly the way to go about courting votes for the next time around.

Most ironic moment Part 1: The Kerry people simultantaneously sliming the SBVT while insisting that Kerry can not be criticized because he's a decorated war veteran.

Most ironic moment Part 2: Maureen Dowd's post-election meltdown column where she gnashes her teeth, "One network serves as state TV." As opposed to all of the rest that serve as a delivery system for the DNC talking points. Maureen, have you met Dan? I think you two might be MFEO.

Getting rid of Li'l Tommy Dashhole was sweet indeed. But not quite as sweet as the Trifecta!
4..More..Centuries!

This is a big moment for about 2 million remaining Viet Nam Veterans. For us, the Viet Nam War is finally over. The Left Wing finally ends up as the major loser.
One of our major tormentors has been exposed and defeated. Even more fun, unnoticed by most of the rest of the world, Jane Fonda lost a lot of money (over 13 million at last report) supporting Moveon.org.

I have one wish for the immediate future. Let our brothers and sisters in arms loose so that they can win in Iraq.

Lastango at November 6, 2004 07:40 AM said...
''I feel like the Democratic Party has changed at the root. It seems utterly dominated by screamers, sophisticators, liars, phonies, unAmericans, cheaters, traitors, thugs, cowards, hatchetmen, moonbats, commies, old commies, fatcat parasites,...''

Yup, AND....them's their good points!

The media 'problem'we have today MUST be corrected.Although we staggered through this time,it was by no means a certain thing.But for some extremely shoddy work by CBS and the NYT the MSM might have been a more effective force and may well have changed the election result.It is critical that blogs such as this continue to chip away at the media power centers so that a 'real'media can arise.
As for the Dems,they are finished as a viable party.Just as Zell Miller said--- 'A national Party no more'.Sooner or later a new party will arise either from the ashes of the current Democratic mess or from outside its confines.But the present collection of interests simply has no reason to continue except to elect people.No ideals;no ideas;no 'real'candidates;no future.A party constructed solely on hate and defeatism has no place in our troubled world.

This election campaign was like riding 1000 miles of bad road non-stop. It never ended, it felt like the same hard slog all the way through, it was characterized by long stretches of gloom and depression (as the media's/Democrats' war of attrition against Bush's numbers took effect) punctuated by brief moments of glee (RatherGate) and optimism (the RNC in New York). And the eternal grind of the campaign was amplified x10 for bloggers and blog-readers alike because we encountered EVERYTHING. Back in the bad (good?) ol' days before the blogosphere, we WERE insulated by media filters from news. Obviously in this election cycle that would have been fatal, but it did have the effect of making it all seem less intense. That's why I totally understood when Ace said, just before Election Day began, how glad he was to have it be [i]over[/i]. Win or lose, just get it DONE. When Osama's tape came out, I literally just started screaming "END! END, GODDAMNIT!!" at the TV screen, so sick was I of whole 24-hour news cycle attack-and-response conveyor belt of news designed to tear down the President or rebut the charges. But hey...what a way to end, eh folks?

I had a dream that AllahPundit resumed posting last night. I can actually remember what he was writing (multiple posts), complete with the accompanying Photoshops. THAT'S HOW CLOSELY I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING THE ELECTION AND THE BLOGOSPHERE.

As for my memories of the election, so many of them seem to be a blur. I know Mickey Kaus is viewed as an ambivalent figure around here ("Osama wants Bush!"), but I really think he's hit on something with his Feiler Faster Principle: so many things that we were assured would affect the election in crucial or devastating ways ended up being totally forgotten or having only minor impact. Remember Sandy Berger? Richard Clarke? The 9/11 Commission? Missing explosives, even?

With that said, the highlights of the campaign were obvious.

- CBS/Burkett. Both my father and I will STILL quote back at each other Ace's immortal words as it was just beginning to kick off. "My god. They have destroyed themselves." Still the most satisfying media scandal in memory, and the one which permanently flushed the MSM out into the open as the jackals they are. I think the Media HAS fatally wounded itself with this campaign. Nobody on the right or even in the middle will ever be able to forget how they openly took sides, and I gauge this from conversations with people who are neither a.) partisans, nor b.) at all interested in the internet as a news source.

- Bush's convention speech: If his disastrous first debate performance made the election brain-meltingly tense, then it was this speech the month before which put him over the top and made that fuck-up survivable.

I'm a Republican, and a pretty partisan one despite my socially moderate leanings, but I've always been extremely cynical about politicians. I'll support them, but I've never gotten emotionally attached to them - how dumb could you be to let that happen? But Bush's performance in the second half of that RNC speech struck a chord with me that...well honestly it bewildered me because no stranger had ever struck it before. When he started into the "we've been through so much together in the past four years" it was, for lack of a better word, disarming. I don't even let my FRIENDS into my heart unless I have a damn good reason to do it, and here was this guy on a TV screen doing it. He started talking about how he was amazed at the bravery and courage of soldiers and their family, how it overwhelmed him that they could have just lost their son yet still be praying for him...and it looked like he was going to cry! I haven't even heard my left-wing friends try to claim he was acting there...it was one of the most admirably genuine moments I've ever seen a politician (A POLITICIAN! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THAT.) have. And for the first time in my life I actually had that heart-welling-up feeling where I said, "goddammit, I will follow this guy."

In the last four years, you and I have come to know each other. Even when we don't agree, at least you know what I believe and where I stand. You may have noticed I have a few flaws, too. People sometimes have to correct my English -- I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it.

One thing I have learned about the presidency is that whatever shortcomings you have, people are going to notice them -- and whatever strengths you have, you're going to need them. These four years have brought moments I could not foresee and will not forget. I have tried to comfort Americans who lost the most on September 11th -- people who showed me a picture or told me a story, so I would know how much was taken from them. I have learned first-hand that ordering Americans into battle is the hardest decision, even when it is right. I have returned the salute of wounded soldiers, some with a very tough road ahead, who say they were just doing their job. I've held the children of the fallen, who are told their dad or mom is a hero, but would rather just have their dad or mom.

And I have met with parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved. I am awed that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in their prayers, to offer encouragement to me. Where does strength like that come from? How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride? It is because they know their loved one was last seen doing good. Because they know that liberty was precious to the one they lost. And in those military families, I have seen the character of a great nation: decent, and idealistic, and strong.

The world saw that spirit three miles from here, when the people of this city faced peril together, and lifted a flag over the ruins, and defied the enemy with their courage. My fellow Americans, for as long as our country stands, people will look to the resurrection of New York City and they will say: Here buildings fell, and here a nation rose.

Right there, he won the election. He reminded us all - even people like me who were beginning to forget - why we trusted this guy, and wanted him in charge. Well-crafted rhetoric from a speechwriter, yes, but also indubitably representative of the spirit of the man himself.

BUZZKILL !!

Thought I was on Kos there for a second. WTF are you people whining about?
Why are we pinning about the negatives and wringing our hands over ’08,
F**K Billary, she cant win! There are NO Negatives.
Don’t let the liberal dregs drag us into their misery, that’s what they do best.

This is our country !

We Did !
We won against left wing conspiracy peddlers.
We won against the M. Moore Hollywood media engine.
We won against Chirac and the rest of the social ist world.
We won against Dan Rather, CNN, CBS, NBC, and the news elite.

We WON !
We WON , we put GW back in the White House with a clear Mandate.
We WON seats in the House
We WON seats in the Senate
We WON moral referendums and sent Dashle back to SD.
WE WON 100% and proved that the silent majority bites back !

Now it’s time to go to work.
And a good place to start is by helping our troops and their families.
Donate your FFMs to Hero Miles or go donate a phone card at aafes.com
But for Christ sake BE HAPPY !!!

Jeff B, you are so right.
"Right there, he won the election."
Certianly the best speech he ever gave including post 9/11 before Congress.
We new he won it.
The dems new it.
He won the elections right there.
Because he was Right.

I was a Democrat most of my adult life. The one issue that caused me to change to Republican, and that will keep me there, is the Republican belief in power to the states and small federal government. But when the spokespeople for the Republicans were the far-right (Robertson and Falwell) I did a lot of voting for Democrats.

The Democratic party is now making the same mistake that the Republicans did at that time. Republicans are getting more votes simply because, IMHO, they moved closer to center. While I don't see any evidence of it yet, I hope the Dems do that now. This country needs a strong 2 party system. It's part of the checks and balances.

As for the MSM...I don't know what to say. The system is broken and I think the only way to fix it is to let it fall to the law of supply and demand, which it is already starting to do, to some degree. I have a relative in journalism in DC. We've never discussed politics or media bias, but I finally gave in to my curiosity and asked a few questions. I'm still trying to recover from the answers. I'm not sure if denial is the right word...more like defensiveness.

Hey GBA. I'm happy.

I'm talkin' like stupid, can't sleep, can't eat, just walking around like a zombie happy.

That's happy

Here are the headlines on the front page of today's edition of the amateur leftist Webzine Slate, in order:

Go North, Young Man: A guide to fleeing the country.

Plus: Would the Canadians really take us in?

Could the Blue States secede?

-------

Savor this, folks. It doesn't get much better.

I'm slightly worried about the election, myself. I knew that Bush would win, and that the Republicans would pick up house and senate seats, but now that it's happened, I can only think cautiously.

This is the chance for the Republican party to change America, and I hope to God they don't fuck this chance up. I don't want to see the Republicans once again forgetting that they are supposed to be the party of small government and fiscal conservatism. Not only does this party have a country to run now, they have a Democrat party to save from the pits of Whigdom. If the Republicans screw up, the Democrats won't have to clean up their act and replace the Michael Moore and Terry McAuliffe mainstream wing of their party.

Oops, I posted the above.

Open thread? Dude, that's DKos/Atrios territory.

I can't wait till I'm as big as Zuniga, so 2/3 of my posts can simply be OPEN RANT: DISCUSS!!

I still don't get his spell-check phobia, tho

Jeff B. thanks for reminding us of the things that didn't matter: "Remember Sandy Berger? Richard Clarke? The 9/11 Commission? Missing explosives, even?" It's striking that they didn't. I doubt even Rathergate had much impact.

One overriding impression I have is that Bush was lucky. First, he ran, during a time or war, against a medal-thrower, Paris-visitor and flip-flopper of no accomplishment or previous profile, and still needed Ohio to edge him. Despite Kerry's weakness and status as a card-carrying, peacenik liberal he was +-140,000 votes from a win.

Second, he had the Swift Vets to take a fatal chunk out of Kerry's ability to present himself as "Presidential." What would have happened without the Swifts? For Bush, the Swifts are a fluke. Bush's own attacks on Kerry were inconsequential by comparison.

Third, there's that first debate. Horrible. Worse than horrible. I think Bush's performance in that debate reflects something fundamental about Bush's own, serious lacks. For instance, I think the Bush you saw up there during the first debate was the Bush who signed Campaign Finance Reform into law, the same Bush who allowed Iraq reconstruction and Iraqi army training to drift for an entire year or more.

In short, I can't escape the feeling that Bush won because he got lucky that his opponent was worse in a way that ordinary people could see, and that he had the Swifts around to help people see.

Picture this: Bush against Zell. Who wins?

To add one more point: Bush was also extremely lucky in having Kerry as a opponent because Kerry motivated true, principled conservatives to hold their noses and vote Bush. Conservatives know they have a bone to pick with RINO Bush on many topics, and took the prospect of the senate's #1 liberal running the WOT and appointing Supreme Court justices to push conservatives back into Bush's arms.

By the way, we've all been reading about lefty fears that Bush, unencumbered by a need to be reelected, is going to turn into a warmongering fascist during this upcoming term. Bullshit. The folks who really have to worry are the conservatives, now that Bush knows he doesn't need them anymore.

Rudy. Arnold. Zell.
Game. Set. Match.

i would be willing to make a small contribution to a "don't let the door hit you on the way out" fund. People who can prove Democratic party affiliation and a desire to leave could get a initial packet that includes an application for Canadian citizenship, and a pledge not to return to the U.S. If they fill them both out and send the info back, they could get a one way bus ticket to Canada in return.

I think is was funny listening to all of those people wandering around like zombies, saying over and over, "John Kerry must win, John Kerry must win," and then, like Sarah Jane Smith, watching them get written out of the script.

(I anyone knows the reference, I will just plotz!)

A Doctor Who reference, innit?

grreat idea a-balum ,
We should setup a Loose a Liberal fund, heck I’ll even to pack’em a lunch.
I work in a predominantly liberal business, I often just play along rather than debate.
( the voice of reason tends to get me yelled at, like “Bush lied Kids Died” bullshit)
I’ve learned it’s more entertaining listen as the real alien butt probe conspiracy venom comes out.
The past month I’ve heard the following;

1.) I’m registered in two different counties; ya think I should vote for Kerry there too?

2.) Wouldn’t it have been better if the government kept that $600 tax rebate and used it in a good social program.

3.) Anyone who thinks there’s no connection between the Bush family and the Saudi’s is not living in reality. ( I lost it )

4.) Everyone knows this war in Irag was orchestrated by Cheney to put money in his pocket and make his friends at Halliburton rich.
Folks I swear to you I’ve heard that verbatim the past few weeks.
Not on a blog somewhere, I actually know people who will say that out loud, scary huh.

I’ve also came to a conclusion about the left.
As a conservative American, a Christian and a Republican, I disagree vehemently with the dems on just about every issue.
But I equally support their right to have that opinion and accept it as such. ( IMHO a social ist track but an honest one)
On the other hand liberals overwhelming dismiss us as being uneducated and stupid.
And as long as they do not accept our vision, our values, and our options as honest and valid this will be a one party nation…Republican and conservative. . . thank God ;)