Election Day

[nobody]

Scott: "The next 4 years with George Bush are going to be interesting years."

Yes they will. He has a Republican Senate and House to play with. He's not afraid to p**s voters off because he can't run for re-election. He'll be able to fill a few Supreme Court seats with his conservative buddies... Basically he's beat the "checks and balances" system, and he's a very powerful man now.

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

[Brother Ragnarok]

Ah well.  I'm pretty well resigned to it now.  At least we can look forward to four more years of great Daily Show episodes.

[Fearless Freep]

Basically he's beat the "checks and balances" system, and he's a very powerful man now.

No he hasn't.  "Checks and Balances" are designed to keep one branch from getting too powerful, not one party.  If one party has control of both house of congress and the presidency, that's just democracy, the will of the people who put them there.  

"Checks and Balances" keeps Bush from trying to change the rules to get three terms or something.  Neither the Congress nor  the Supreme Court would allow that.  

Even when one party has controlled both congress and the presidency, congress has been very unwilling to give the president any more power as they fear the future when the power has shifted.  I seem to recall Bush Sr wanting some budgetary power but the Republicans in Congress wouldn't allow it because they feared the same power in the hands of a Democratic president.

"Checks and balances" has been eroded in the past because you have the Supreme Court trying to legislate from the bench, the president trying to legislate from the oval office, and the Congress trying to administer, but that's a different issue

[Scott]

yep.....................

[Chopper]

you know i started reading through a lot of the posts on this thread and i must say you all have very intelligent things to say, i wish i could add something, but i can't really t-GO NADER!!! GREEN PARTY WOOT WOOT!!

www.votenader.org

"this statistic wont lay down." -Sick of it All

[Eirik]

I lost a friend in the Pentagon and saw another badly burned.  I was scheduled to be there later that day - though not in the wing that got hit.  Bush went to Afghanistan and toppled the group that helped make that happen... and he did it in a way that left the vast majority of Afghans better off - it was nothing short of the most brilliant operation in American history - and probably faced worse odds than most.  

Then he actually did something odd.  He paid attention to the far left.  "This happened to us because we've propped up dictators and given people in the third world no hope" they said.  So he picked out the dictatorship formerly propped up by us that was most likely to provide WMD to terrorists and he knocked it off.  The going is rougher than Afghanistan - mainly due to some administration miscalculations I admit - but we're getting it done and we're going to win.

As you may have guessed from what I said earlier, I work for the US government's national security aparatus.  I see first hand how things are going and I watch the media - even FOX - ignore the real story, and that is that the Bush administration is clubbing Al Qaeda about the head and neck all over the world.  It isn't a perfect effort - don't get me started on Wolfowitz - but it's going better that World War II ever did.  And it didn't take long for me to tire of Kerry's misrepresentations of the facts of this war.  Facts for which he knows better.

I'm not an across the board Republican - I don't even register with the party.  I don't care if gays get married, I hate the death penalty, I think taxes are probably low enough... No thinking person agrees 100% with one side or another.  But you pick what's most important to you.  I have three children.  I don't want to outlive them.  That's what's most important to me.  That's how I voted for Bush with a clear conscience.

I respect your opinion and your vote for Kerry.  Please respect mine.

[Brother Ragnarok]

As I already stated, I've gotten over the (to me) depressing news and have settled down for another four years of great Daily Show episodes.

[Kory]

My condolences to you, Eirik.  I can't imagine how hard that must have been to see and experience!

Thank you for your post- I really appreciate your honesty and intelligence regarding the matter.  Thanks for pointing out that not everyone that voted for Bush is an "ignorant, hard-core-conservative closed-minded racist rich white man".  I happen to be a middle-class female with no clear political party (I vote based on the candidate- not the party, hence my strange looking, mixed up ballot).

It's just nice to know that some people can respect the decisions of others.

[petrol lunatic]

I think the San Francisco Bay Area should secede from the rest of the US. It would be cool, because a lot of the country doesn't like us, and we don't like them, cause they think we're all gay homeless hippies, and we think they're all backward evangelical hicks.(Exaggeration, obviously we live in our own world here.)
But if you look at the breakdown by county, all bay area counties except Santa Clara had like at least 75% Kerry.

[Ed]

Hey, lets me positive here and think of it as an opportinuty to:
1) Have lots to complain about for years to come.
2) Take up hobbies as our jobs move to foreign lands
3) Allow Reaganism to finally decay from its latest zombie-like resurrection.  
4) Watch as whole segments of our population are denied basic needs.
5) Kick all their discredited asses out in the next elections.
Ed

[blkrider]

I can totally believe that Bush found more support in Santa Clara county, since I live and work here and witness these people every day.

Some are hoping Bush might go more to the center in a second term, but I really doubt it.  Still, there's always hope.  More often than not the religious right are used as pawns by the Republican leadership--most of the GOP higherups don't really believe  that way, but they can't win without them.  But since Bush doesn't have to worry about re-election now, maybe, just maybe he might become a little more moderate.  I do hope the economy and Iraq turn around.  

I don't agree with how Bush has handled terrorism, though I don't know if Gore or Kerry would do any better.  What that latest Bin Laden showed me was that we were in exactly the same position we were four years ago...basically with no idea when or where the attacks would come.  Except that at least four years ago we had some idea where Bin Laden was located.  Now we don't.  I don't see Bush as toppling the terrorist networks so much as he's dispersed them all over the world.
But...that's really not my big issue with Bush anyway.  All I really care about is the economy, working families, health insurance, etc.  

One thing I really do feel...although I support equal rights for everyone, I think it was a really bad idea to make 2004 the year to make gay marriage a big issue.
Who knows how many people on the right might have stayed home if those defense of marriage amendments hadn't been on the ballots?  especially in ohio.  
I just think there are so many more important issues than gay marriage.  Why couldn't it wait until 2005?

I figure either Bush turns it around and things get better, or he doesn't and people will hopefully blame his party for it in 2008.   I don't think Hillary is any more electable than Kerry, probably less so, but Edwards is already acting like he's running--though he's not real popular in his home state.  Maybe at least he'll do better that Lieberman.

[raj]

Nice post Eirik.
And Petrol, we don't want you to secede; what makes America great is that  there are so many different opinions and we all live together peacefully.  Perhaps a bit more respect  for the validity of other viewpoints is in order, such as Kerry supporters are not traitors or Bush supporters are not homophobic (Hey, I voted against the dumbass gay marriage ban in Ohio).

As for Bush,
1) he can't get reelected (so no need to pander to his base)
2) the world now understands that when he says something he actually does mean it (a true shock to francophile diplomats)
now he may turn his eye towards his legacy.

[Brother Ragnarok]

> One thing I really do feel...although I support equal rights
> for everyone, I think it was a really bad idea to make 2004 the
> year to make gay marriage a big issue.
> Who knows how many people on the right might have stayed home
> if those defense of marriage amendments hadn't been on the
> ballots?  especially in ohio.  
> I just think there are so many more important issues than gay
> marriage.  Why couldn't it wait until 2005?

Ugh, tell me about it.  Nothing quite so beautifully hypocritical as the "Land of the Free" writing old-fashioned bigotry and discrimination right into many of its state's constitutions.  People make me sick.

[The Ghoul]

I lived in the Bay Area for more than 5 years and I both loved and loathed it there. Most City Councils will happily vote down a day care center but any Starbuck's can move in three fold. f**k that.
I'm a libertarian artsy fartsy and I could not stand how the politics is pro-gay mafia but will bend over and tax to death any family. Where's the utopia in that? Owning a vehicle means gas must cost $3 a gallon to pay for your environmental sins and don't even think of buying a house. A rat trap scum home with wiring from the 1880's fetches $800K there now. No thanks! Keep the loony bin and enjoy, I'll visit and leave happy!

[Acidburn]

Oh yes, Bin Ladden sending a tape really tells me that we are in the same boat as before 9/11.  I mean then he could get 20 something people into plains and have them crash into buildings..........now he sends VHS tapes. Yeah, I see where Bush is messing up so badly.