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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
On The Win
The win is now official. The thing I'm most excited about is that I finally made a correct prediction -- bang on, in fact, on the popular vote percentages!
There's a lot out there on the blogosphere about all this -- particularly good was Mark Steyn's realtime comments, NRO's The Corner, and Maderblog.
So what does it all mean? In this blog's tradition, I'll keep it brief and to the point:
1. The Bush presidency is vindicated. The American people chose the guy who will keep them safer, and who will more aggressively prosecute the war on terrorism. America is still very much at war.
2. The chasm between the elites in America -- the media, Hollywood, the academy -- and normal people is very wide. Indeed, has it ever been wider? Despite all of the resources used to fight this President, despite being massively outspent by liberal groups on advertising, despite Eminem and his new video, despite George Soros, despite a huge turnout that is supposed to favour the challenger, despite every European capital's opposition, Bush still won.
3. The Democrats are a mess. Republican gains in the House and Senate, including the loss of the Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle, is quite embarassing. They have clearly moved out of the American mainstream.
4. John Kerry was a bad candidate. He spent far too much time focusing on his Vietnam record -- which we learned was questionable -- and not enough on the state of the economy. He (arguably) won all three debates and still lost the election.
5. Karl Rove and the senior Republican strategists around Bush are the best in the world. No question about it. They are the best political tacticians modern politics has seen -- better than Lee Atwater or James Carville.
6. The impact of social conservatives voting will be fascinating to find out. Pro-traditional marriage, pro-life voters (essentially white evangelicals) were directly targeted by the Bush campaign. I'd wager that they were the ones who really put Bush over the top. This important group of voters will not, and cannot, ever be taken for granted again.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 1:18 PM
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