Moving On

November 3rd, 2004 -- So the 2004 campaign is over, and the American people have indeed spoken. George W. Bush has been elected to a second term with a majority of both the electoral and popular votes. It's the first time a presidential candidate has secured a majority of the votes cast since 1988. The president also received the highest number of popular votes of any presidential candidate ever. With the high turnout, the second highest number of votes ever has gone to John Kerry.

At last check according to MSNBC, with 99 percent of the nation's precincts reporting, 51 percent of the popular vote went to President Bush, and Senator Kerry received 48 percent. It's a somewhat more decisive vote for Bush than in 2000, but keep this mind...

More than 59 million people voted for Bush, and that's great for him. But more than 55 million people voted for Kerry. Hundreds of thousands across the country chose Ralph Nader or another candidate. And scores of millions of eligible voters didn't vote at all, many of them likely because they see little purpose in the electoral system.

It's been a long, nasty campaign. Proverbial buckets of proverbial mud were thrown from both sides. Partisan bickering (I myself am guilty on that one) has left the country as deeply divided as it was before the election.

I want to be optimistic about the next four years. I want to believe things will get better. That we'll find a way out of Iraq. That we'll make real progress in the war against terrorism. That we'll mend our relationships with the world community. That we'll improve our healthcare system, our education, our environment, and our economy. To achieve all of that, we'll need leadership that will be strong and determined without being arrogant and stubborn. Our country's leadership--on both sides--will need to reach across the aisle and work together in the same way it did in the days and weeks after September 11th, 2001.

President Bush today asked for the support of Kerry voters, saying he would do everything he can to deserve their trust. In so much as I want to get on with life, I want to believe him. In the last four years, I've seen little that convinces me the leadership in the government deserves my trust. I just hope that it's different this time around.

Tom Brokaw put it best in his last ever comments as NBC's election coverage anchor early this morning. He said (and I paraphrase here) that for as much emotion has gone into this campaign, there are no tanks on the street, no war is being declared, and nobody is being thrown in jail for having an opinion. We all have a right to free speech and a right to choose our own leaders. As citizens, those rights are the most powerful tools we have.