Why Bush Won!

i think that results speak well of america. bush won b/c he has been able to define himself and present the voters with "something to vote for"--kerry did not do that. he was a candidate who offered clear vision (whether one agreed with that vision or not, he/she clearly knew what he stood for), his core values center around faith and the value of life which resonate with middle america, and he's an "everyday" kinda guy. he may not have won the debates but in the end, i think people went in to those voting booths and had to decide if they were going to vote for someone they knew or someone they still could not define. bush was probably not a lot of those 51%-ers solid choice but rather their best among the two (or three).

i think bush should feel quite justified in taking office this time (not that he didn't the first time). he received more votes than any other president in history. he is the first president since his dad to have a majority of the votes at 51%, and he won states that clearly were up in the air last time with relative ease this time. he has a mandate now.

i'm trying my best to avoid bitter complaining about the liberal media but i do think that once again they have egg on their face this year. after disbanding the exit poll conglomorate post-2000, they re-configured it this year and still they got things wrong having boldly proclaimed kerry with 1-3% leads from 2pm on. as it turns out, those exit poll numbers were bogus just as they were in 2000. why, well i have a few theories on it with a simple one being that a lot of republican voters just flat don't want to share their voting preferences with exit pollsters and thus the majority of what they have to talk to is liberal/democratic voters (many of which would love to sit down and talk about their progressive votes over a double mocha latte). i think that the media did their best to push kerry's candidacy with suspect pre-polling practices, promotion of the "young vote" which again did not materialize, grandiosed news stories of little truth or releveance such as 60 minutes junk, kitty kelly, the missing bombs, and cable news shows openly endorsing kerry on Monday (chris matthews, imus, etc.). it makes me wonder had the liberal media not been in kerry's camp, would this have been a 10-12 point bush win?

my reference to secularism was not so much that bush is the great "chosen one" for christians but that this victory really speaks volumes to what many americans believe and feel about our country's origins and future. this country has firm religious roots that have created morals many in this country do not want to release or minimize. things such as gay marriage, abortion, and the ability/freedom to craft one's own destiny without government interference are issues that too many americans this time around were unwilling to see trampled. it's not that so americans are opposed necessarily to homosexual relationships as it is they don't want an institution that has core moral values at its epicenter to be de-valued for the sake of "progressivism". i think many americans are still quite appalled at the thought of abortion and it's air of "convenience" nowadays and saw kerry's unwillingness to stand up against what damn near any sane human being declares immoral and unnecessary in partial birth abortions. a great deal of americans also don't want the government to take things (like money, right to bear arms, etc.) from them that they feel the constitution is clear in telling them to butt out of. kerry's values of governmental redistribution of wealth apparently did not fly well with many voters even if they do think the rich have loopholes in tax law.

i say some of this b/c the sentiments expressed by many at the exit polls (which can be quite different in validity than the "who'd ya vote for" question) indicated that values topped the list of issues that swayed their voting while other issues such as the iraq war and the economy were well under that. that to me, says volumes about what this election really measured. it was a referendum of sorts. it was vote for the man more americans felt would preserve our way of life and uphold our country's 200+ year values and integrity. the u.s isn't perfect by any means. our ways are not necessarily the best ways. but they are just that, "our ways". those values define many of us and when it boiled down to touching the screen or punching that card, 51% of america trusted george w. bush to protect our future, preserve our past, and deliver on a year's worth of promises.that's why i'm so happy. that's why i voted for bush. that's why i think our future is in very good hands.