Bush to press on with anti-terror war

WASHINGTON: US president George W Bush won four more  years in the White House yesterday and pledged to “fight this  war on terror with every resource of our national power.” John  Kerry conceded defeat rather than back an election challenge in  make-or-break Ohio. “I will need your support and I will work to earn it,” the  president said in an appeal to the 55 million Americans who voted  for his Democratic rival. “We are entering a season of hope,” he  said. The president spoke before thousands of cheering supporters  less than an hour after his vanquished rival conceded defeat. “We  cannot win this election,” the Massachusetts senator said in an  emotional campaign farewell in Boston.

The re-election triumph gave the president a new term to  pursue the war in Iraq and a conservative, tax-cutting agenda at  home — and probably the chance to name one or more justices to an  aging Supreme Court.  He also will preside alongside expanded Republican  majorities in Congress. The Republicans gained four Senate seats  and bolstered its majority in the House by at least two. Vice president Dick Cheney told the Republican victory  rally that the results of Tuesday’s elections translated into a  mandate for the president’s policies. He did not elaborate. Bush sketched only the barest outline of a second term  agenda, talking of reforming an “outdated tax code,” overhauling Social Security and upholding the “deepest values of family and  faith.”

The two public appearances signalled the end of a campaign  waged over the anti-terror war and the economy. Hours earlier, Kerry had telephoned Bush to offer a private  concession. Aides to both men stressed they had agreed on a need  to heal the nation after a long and frequently bitter campaign. Ohio’s 20 electoral votes gave Bush 274 in the Associated  Press count, four more than the 270 needed for victory. Kerry had  252 electoral votes, with Iowa (7) and New Mexico (5) unsettled. Bush was winning 51 percent of the popular vote to 48  percent for his rival. He led by more than 3 million ballots. Officials in both camps described the telephone  conversation between two campaign warriors. A Democratic source said Bush called Kerry a worthy, tough  and honourable opponent.

Kerry told Bush the country was too  divided, and Bush agreed, the source said. Yet Kerry’s public remarks contained an element of  challenge to the Republican president. “America is in need of  unity and longing for a larger measure of compassion,” he said. “I hope president Bush will advance those values in the coming  years.”  Kerry placed his call after weighing unattractive options  overnight. With Bush holding fast to a six-figure lead in Ohio’s  popular vote, Kerry could give up or trigger a struggle that  would have stirred memories of the bitter recount in Florida that  propelled Bush to the White House in 2000. Kerry’s call was the last bit of drama in a campaign full  of it. While Bush remains in the White House, Kerry returns to  the Senate, part of the shrunken Democratic minority. (AP)

Bush re-election poses headache for Blair: analysts

LONDON: US President George W Bush’s re-election poses a headache for Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose unswerving loyalty to the right-wing Republican has angered many Britons, analysts said. Blair is Bush’s closest overseas ally, but their friendship is deeply unpopular with left-wing sections of the governing Labour Party. Many Britons believe he slavishly follows US foreign policy without exerting real influence and he is frequently mocked as Washington’s poodle. “I think in his heart of hearts Blair would have preferred a Kerry victory,” said John Peterson, a politics professor at Glasgow University. “In temperament, ideology and in policy terms Blair is much more comfortable in the sort of political space we would associate with Kerry.”

Blair’s popularity slumped following the war in Iraq, and Peterson said Bush’s victory would be a liabile wrong time” — would have left Blair dangerously isolated. Bush’s ouster, they argued, could have been seen as a damning indictment on Britain and America’s joint action in Iraq and could have increased calls for Blair to be dumped too. Bush’s defeat would have given “a tremendous boost to opponents of Blair,” said Simon Henig, a politics lecturer at Sunderland University. Bush’s perceived unilateralism, his refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol on global warming, his rejection of an international criminal court, the incarceration of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and invading Iraq without a second UN resolution  have all contributed to his unpopularity.

Blair’s former director of communications Alastair Campbell has conceded how politically damaging the relationship is for Blair. But writing in The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, he argued Bush’s re-election would not necessarily make things worse for Blair. “There is no doubt the Bush-relationship has given him enormous political difficulties,” Campbell wrote. “The political hit has been taken on this and won’t necessarily get worse if Bush wins again.” It’s widely assumed in Britain that Blair backed Bush over Iraq in return for a pledge that Washington would push harder for peace in the Middle East. A road map peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians put forward by Bush last year has largely stalled and Blair has pledged to make reinvigorating the process a personal priority. Lawmakers in Blair’s Labour Party will be watching closely to see how committed Bush is to the process.

Presidential race was longest, costliest — and one of the nastiest

WASHINGTON: The US presidential race of 2004 lumbered into history as the longest and the costliest, a wartime election with a nail-biter of a finish and a bitter residue of political division and polarisation. The country was split down the middle between President George W Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry, and the nation’s politics were so polarised that it seemed unlikely the winner would find common ground with opponents anytime soon. Regardless of the outcome, half of the country was sure to be unhappy. Troublesome for Bush, a majority of Americans were unhappy about the war in Iraq and the shape of the economy, according to Associated Press exit polls. Nine out of ten were worried about the availability and cost of health care. Three-fourths said they worried about another major terrorist attack, and that group leaned toward Bush.

A surge in voter registration and the biggest voter mobilisation campaign ever, added uncertainty. There were many ways to describe the presidential contest. It was a competition of two men of wealth and privilege, both graduates of Yale University and members of the same secret society, Skull and Bones. It was the first White House election since the nation was shaken by its worst-ever terrorist attack, the first since the American-led invasion of Iraq, and the first in wartime since Vietnam. Osama bin Laden edged into the race with a videotaped appearance that reminded Americans of the 9/11 attacks. More than half of voters said the bin Laden tape was important in their vote, and they tended to support Kerry. Iraq towered over the election with grisly scenes of beheadings, bombings and massacres, reminding Americans of the steep price of war. The nation has lost more than 1,100 troops in Iraq, and voters were split on whether the United States should have invaded in the first place and wondered how to get out.

While incumbents often delegate negative campaigning to their vice presidents, Bush did not shrink from the task, branding Kerry weak and indecisive and the kind of leader who would put the nation at risk. “This president has been the bad cop in chief,” said Norman Ornstein, a well-known political analyst. He described the race as “the nastiest in our lifetimes. It doesn’t maybe equal the 19th century but it’s hard to watch this without getting an upset stomach if you care about politics.” In terms of policy, the two candidates offered some of the sharpest differences in many years on issues such as taxes, health care, Social Security, abortion, gay marriage, gun control, embryonic stem cell research, energy, the environment, America’s place in the world and its need for allies in Iraq.

In Congress, Democrats and Republicans regarded each other with suspicion and hostility. Bush fueled the partisanship by refusing to compromise with Democrats on issues from taxes to judicial appointments. Rather than accommodate his opponents after emerging the winner of the disputed election of 2000, Bush behaved like he had a mandate and relied on his Republican base rather than try to attract supporters on the other side. Bad feelings were exacerbated by a campaign in which both candidates tried to rouse their core supporters with negative attacks on the other side. It also was the longest race. With more than 40 trips to Pennsylvania and 30 to Florida underlining his most frequent destinations over four years, Bush arguably had been running for re-election since he took office.