The Associated Press
WASHINGTON “”mdash; President Bush won four more years in the
White House on Wednesday, pocketing a quiet concession from
Democrat John Kerry that closed out a loud and long campaign fought
over the war on terror and the economy.
“˜”˜Congratulations, Mr. President,” the
Massachusetts senator said simply in a call that lasted less than
five minutes and followed Kerry’s decision not to contest
Bush’s lead in make-or-break Ohio.
The victory gave Bush a new term to pursue the war in Iraq and a
conservative, tax-cutting agenda.
He also will preside alongside expanded Republican majorities in
Congress. The GOP gained four Senate seats and led for a fifth. The
party bolstered its majority in the House by at least two.
His re-election secure, Bush planned a mid-afternoon appearance
before supporters in Washington. By pre-arrangement, Kerry was
speaking first to a hometown crowd in Boston to conclude a campaign
that came achingly close to success.
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 conversation between two
campaign warriors.
A Democratic source said Bush called Kerry a worthy, tough and
honorable opponent. Kerry told Bush the country was too divided,
the source said, and Bush agreed. “˜”˜We really have to
do something about it,” Kerry said, according to the
official.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush told Kerry,
“˜”˜I think you were an admirable, honorable
opponent.”
Kerry placed his call after weighing unattractive options
overnight. With Bush holding fast to a six-figure lead in
make-or-break Ohio, 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, he returns to the
Senate, part of the shrunken Democratic minority.
He acted, hours after White House chief of staff Andy Card
declared Bush the winner and White House aides said the president
was giving Kerry time to consider his next step.
One senior Democrat familiar with the discussions in Boston said
Kerry’s running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, was
suggesting that he shouldn’t concede.
The official said Edwards, a trial lawyer, wanted to make sure
all options were explored and that Democrats pursued them as
thoroughly as Republicans would if the positions were reversed.
Advisers said the campaign just wanted one last look for
uncounted ballots that might close the 136,000-vote advantage Bush
held in Ohio.
An Associated Press survey of the state’s 88 counties
found there were about 150,000 uncounted provisional ballots and an
unspecified number of absentee votes still to be counted.
Ohio aside, New Mexico and Iowa remained too close to call in a
race for the White House framed by a worldwide war against terror
and economic worries at home.
Those two states were for the record ““ Ohio alone had the
electoral votes to swing the election to the man in the White House
or his Democratic challenger.
Bush remained at the White House, a GOP legal and political team
dispatched overnight to Ohio in case Kerry made a fight of it.
Republicans already were celebrating election gains in Congress.
They picked up at least three seats in the Senate, and a fourth was
within their grasp, in Alaska. And they drove Democratic leader Tom
Daschle from office.
That will be the state of play on Capitol Hill for the next two
years, with the chance of a Supreme Court nomination fight looming
along with legislative battles.
Republicans also re-enforced their majority in the House.
Glitches galore cropped up in overwhelmed polling places as
Americans voted in high numbers, fired up by unprecedented
registration drives, the excruciatingly close contest and the sense
that these were unusually consequential times.
“˜”˜The mood of the voter in this election is
different than any election I’ve ever seen,”
said Sangamon County, Ill., clerk Joseph Aiello.
“˜”˜There’s more passion. They seem to be very
emotional. They’re asking lots of questions, double-checking
things.”
The country exposed its rifts on matters of great import in
Tuesday’s voting. Exit polls found the electorate split down
the middle or very close to it on whether the nation is moving in
the right direction, on what to do in Iraq, on whom they trust with
their security.
The electoral map Wednesday looked much like it did before; the
question mark had moved and little else.
Bush built a solid foundation by hanging on to almost all the
battleground states he got last time. Facing the cruel arithmetic
of attrition, Kerry needed to do more than go one state better than
Al Gore four years ago; redistricting since then had left those
2000 Democratic prizes 10 electoral votes short of the total needed
to win the presidency.
Florida fell to Bush again, close but no argument about it.
Bush’s relentless effort to wrest Pennsylvania from the
Democratic column fell short. He had visited the state 44 times,
more than any other. Kerry picked up New Hampshire in perhaps the
election’s only turnover.
In Ohio, Kerry won among young adults, but lost in every other
age group. One-fourth of Ohio voters identified themselves as
born-again Christians and they backed Bush by a 3-to-1 margin.
A sideline issue in the national presidential campaign, gay
civil unions may have been a sleeper that hurt Kerry in Ohio and
elsewhere. Ohioans expanded their law banning gay marriage, already
considered the toughest in the country, with an even broader
constitutional amendment against civil unions.
In all, voters in 11 states approved constitutional amendments
limiting marriage to one man and one woman.
In Florida, Kerry again won only among voters under age 30. Six
in 10 voters said Florida’s economy was in good shape, and
they voted heavily for Bush. Voters also gave the edge to
Bush’s handling of terrorism.
In Senate contests, Rep. John Thune’s victory over Daschle
represented the first defeat of a Senate party leader in a
re-election race in more than a half century.