Instead of saying yay for bush in this thread. I would just like to say i gained alot of respect for John Kerry today. The fact that he called and conceded. Instead of taking this all to court and making this a lengthy battle he did a very honorable thing. I mean i understand if it was closer to take it to court, but he saw that maybe it was two far apart and did such a good thing. I was just speechless when i heard he did this and like i said gained alot of respect for him today. Thats all i have to say and i want to congratulate both party’s on a well fought election.
i would also like to congratulate both parties on a clean (for the most part) and well fought out election. i just cant wait four more years until the next one! i get soo pumped up during these things… ask T.hoffman, i was over his house last night playing GTA:SA and watching the election. all edge of your seat nail biting fun!! ahaha
can anyone put up a link of this annoucnement?? i just went around cnn and msn anc couldnt find anything…
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/03/election.main/index.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137486,00.html
…and other sites. He is also holding a press conference at 2:00 EST to make the formal announcement. President re-elect Bush decided to let Kerry say what he wants to say before he has his press conference. Hopefully everybody will now work together to make this country be one agains like what we had after 9/11.
Let’s hope internationally too David, that’s what really matters.
Here’s a nice little comment made on /. on Kerry conceding…
My advice to the Democrats:Let the Republicans do whatever they want. Don’t fight them on any issue. Let them pass any legislation they want, appoint any judges they want, spend any money they want, cut any taxes they want. Let them have free reign of the government. They want a chance to prove their system works? Give it to them. In fact, whenever they ask you to support them on an issue, go willingly, go gladly and give them everything they want.
In 4, 8 or 12 years, let’s see how things turn out. If it’s really that bad, then the Democrats will easily be able to regain control of everything. If things are going well, then we’ll know for certain that the conservative agenda works and we will have a clear mandate for the future.
It’s time for the democrats to fall back and watch for a while. It may be a lot to suffer, but I think it’s the only way for us to get past the divisiveness. If the Democrats continue to fight the Republicans, they will continue to get blamed for the lack of progress in this country and continue to be labeled as whiners and obstructionists. By not making challenges, then they can’t be blamed for mistakes, and if there are costly mistakes, it will be easy to turn the country in a different direction and start again. For the liberal America, this is your trial by fire.
I don’t understand what the big deal is. He lost fair and square. It’s not like he’s handing it over to Bush in good sportsmanship. Kerry lost, Bush won. Nothing special or honorable happened here.
And also, I have a hard time seeing how to use the word “call” possessively.
He didn’t hire the lawyers to sue sue sue and he didn’t whine. Gore also lost (well, we won’t go there) and he drew it out longer and longer. It seems that Kerry might be positioning himself for a run in 2008.
its the fact that he saw that he wouldnt win and didnt still drag it out in the courts. He could of done that if he wanted. yes bush won fair and square but as bush was a good sport so was kerry today
Not true, this had determined the fate of the country, but don’t get me wrong, Kerry did put up a good fight, but this was a big election, especially for the country’s current status. Even though Bush won, Kerry should be recognized for his attempt.
Yeah, you’re right, don’t go there, because Gore didn’t lose.
Had the votes in Florida been counted with any semblance of accuracy, we wouldn’t even be talking about Kerry conceding
I dont think Kerry conceding makes him oh so honorable. I don’t think “dragging it out” in the courts would make him dishonorable either.
If there was any reasonable expectation that he could carry Ohio, then he should have done everything in his power to make sure all the votes were counted. All you republicans know Bush would if he were in Kerry’s position
Also I should add, even though Kerry conceded, if he wins Ohio, he will be our next president. Conceding isn’t supported by the Constitution, so if he gets more electoral votes than 270 and Bush, he will be the president.
Pssst, Katie, you mean 274 
Pretty much the whole point of conceding is that Ohio won’t count all their provisional, absentee, and military ballots, I think.
Yep, yep - my bad. Thanks for catching the typo! :o
They will still count all the votes. This is coming from my civics teacher.
“http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/images/main/hdr.blk.pro.st.winner.gif”
That word projected is just as annoying during election time as concede and electoral votes.
Why does this country not have patients?
I find it disturbing that it took the same amount of time to decide my town’s local election (a town of about 10,000 voters) that it took to count and announce the presidential election (a country of about 115 million voters)
There are not enough votes in Ohio to overcome the President’s lead, even if he got EVERY single vote that was outstanding.
Currently, CNN.com is reporting Bush has 2,796,147 votes and Kerry has 2,659,664. Simple math tells us that Bush is ahead by 136,483 votes.
In this article on CNN.com Ohio Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell (Republican), has stated the number of provisional ballets as being close to 175,000. Therefore, it is mathematicaly possible for Kerry to win Ohio.
I agree that it is probably unlikely that Kerry will be able to win Ohio.
However…
Earlier today I got the following information in a email sent by a family member. I am not sure on the source of the information, so I won’t say whether I beleive it or not, or if I think that the predictions are valid. But I do find it interesting.
This is what the email said:
It’s not over in Ohio. As this email notes:
Bush is currently leading in Ohio by 136,221
If there are 250,000 provisional ballots outstanding, and 90% of those ballots are good, as they were in 2000: That leaves 225,000 votes.If 85% of those ballots prove to be for Kerry, about the number that Gore got in 2000: That leaves Kerry with 191,250, giving Kerry a lead of 55,029.
If there are only 200,000 provisionals, following the same calculation would leave Kerry with a lead of 16,779.
If the provisional ballots are only 175,000 that leaves Kerry with a deficit of -2,346 that leaves the Kerry campaign in a position to get an automatic statewide recount.
Or, to put it another way, an automatic recount is triggered by a margin of 0.25% or between 13,000 and 16,000 votes.
I’m not suggesting that Kerry should have called for a recount, but I thought it was interesting that there might have been a possibility for this to happen.
From my personal perspective, I saw it as Kerry not wanting the position as badly as he’s proposed. I saw it as him giving it up. If he wanted to be President so badly, and change Bush’s way of doing things in the US so much, then he should have kept fighting for it. If he really believes in this country and that he can do a good job at running, he should have kept fighting to do what he thought was best for our country.
I do have respect for him because he tried, but all the same, I still found it to be quite disappointing in a Democrat’s point of view (I’m not a Democrat, just so people don’t get confused).