Bush's Mandate

This election was about the war on terror and the continuing military response to the war Islamists around the world declared and waged against us. John Kerry stood for (and this is me guessing since he contradicted himself most of the time) doing nothing. Kerry said he would respond swiftly to any attack on America, failing to realize in the moment he said it that we've already been attacked many times and that to prevent further attacks we must rid ourselves of onerous state sponsors of terror. Bush let three debates take place and Kerry, to his credit, was able to make the race much closer, but in the end his own waffling and anti-American veneer cost him the election. He will now disappear back into Massachusetts politics, likely to only reappear if someone asks him to serve in a cabinet or something some day.

Bush's first press briefing/news conference tells us something about how he wants to spend his last term domestically and noticeably absent were religious inspired domestic ideas like faith-based initiatives. He talked more about quasi-privatization of social security and keeping his tax cuts in place. In foreign policy he talked about finishing off the terrorists in Iraq, and a full scale assault on Fallujah seems very imminent. Weaker elements in Bush's cabinet like Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of State Colin Powell are likely to terminated. Perhaps Condoleeza Rice or Donald Rumsfeld will be transferred to State, but I think the ultimate goal is for Paul Wolfowitz, the man whose plan after 9/11 was to invade Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria simultaneously, to become Defense Secretary.

The election was about the War and very little else. Kerry represented Clintonian ambivalence and the voters showed that they at least remember 9/11 a little bit.

Bush will also set up what seems the very probable ascendancy of Rudy Giuliani (or if the constitution is changed, Arnold Schwarzenegger) to the nomination in 2008.