Four More Years

Well, for the Republicans anyway. They will be running the table for at least the next two years: the Presidency, and a simple majority in the Senate and House.

Part of me is surprised that America would vote Bush back in, but another part of me isn’t too surprised that America did not elect Kerry. I was surprised to hear that moral issues drove the biggest part of this election. While I recognize that’s important, I really thought the fears of war, and war — at least as Bush has defined it — brought to our shores one day, would galvanize a fair part of the voting public away from Bush. I was dead wrong.

A really good thing out of this election, however, were the numbers of people that voted. Locally, it was between 65-85% of all registered voters, and that’s such a change from previous elections. Of course, the turnout is bigger when there’s a presidential election, but huge is huge!

Myself, I don’t know that Bush being elected is the end of the world. I do feel strongly that his being elected will keep us in the Iraqi morass for much longer than we should be, and should guarantee that we will be “in a state of war” for the next four years. That probably increases the liklihood of some form of attack upon our soil during his next term. I just hope and pray that that can be averted.

And, in 2008, it will be a free-for-all, with Bush hitting the term limit. Who’s next in line? Chaney? Hardly. Will John Kerry make another run? Will John Edwards? Is there some dark horse, just over the horizon, who will make a successful run?

I dunno. I’m just glad that the mudslinging has stopped, and I can get back to watching car and ED commercials! 🙂