Election Recap

Random thoughts this morning:

Fact.
The President won the first popular vote majority (not plurality) since the 1988 election, with record turnout and the largest absolute number of votes ever.

Fact.
The GOP apparently is picking up seats in the House, Senate, and State Governors' mansions.

Fact.
The President has a statistically insurmountable lead in Ohio, New Mexico, and Iowa, which should give him a comfortable final tally in the Electoral College of 286 versus Kerry's likely 248252.

Opinion.
This was a landslide, in the context of where Bush started four years ago, and in the context of no popular vote majorities since 1988.

Fact.
Instead of gracefully conceding at around 2:30AM, when he still had his crowd and it should have been evident that it was statistically improbable (well-nigh impossible) to win Ohio, Kerry chose to flirt with the Al-Gore Armageddon strategy.

Analysis.
Why didn't Kerry concede? I think it was to poison the morning news spin. Instead of focusing on the above facts, the talking heads in NY and California this morning were talking about how we are still such a closely divided country and that President Bush must govern from the center. Funny that the lefties always win a mandate, even with a mere plurality, and that there's no obligation on them to govern from the center.

Kerry is so far refusing to concede, but surely he has to be looking at the statistical likelihood of erasing the President's 150,000-vote lead in Ohio. But even if Kerry now concedes, the MSM will not be trumpeting what was an astounding show of support from a record number of the American people yesterday for the President and his policies. They will instead be focusing on the "lingering divisions."

All I can say is, way to f*ckin' go, Al. Your lack of grace four years ago continues to infect the process.

Update: Looks like Kerry is a bigger man than Al Gore, and that he has more grace than I was expecting.

Posted by JohnL at November 3, 2004 08:29 AM