2004 Presidential Transistion
John Perry Barlow: "Boy, does this suck. Even with a couple of days of perspective, it still sucks. And it may suck for 4 more years. It may suck until sometime in late 2012, when the Mayans seem to think time and space will collapse and everything will suck everything into everything else. And that will really suck. But, for now, life goes on..."
"Indeed, as I've said repeatedly before, we must do our collective best to shatter the fetters of intolerance and live more in the necessary amnesty of interdependence. We need to quit scaring each other. Both sides are convinced that the other is trying to impose his culture on us, whether by law or by Internet. Fear of the Other, whether Bush or bin Laden, whether terror without or terror within, has been murdering reason and civility in America. We need to look one another in the eyes and see the human being behind the enemy. If we're not going to start shooting each other over the next 4 years, we will need to do that a lot..."
"This will be a tricky four years. In addition to a sense of humor, which should have plenty of dark meat to feast on, we will need cunning, courage, clarity, and, as I say, forgiveness. We will need understanding, perspective, and something that also seems in ready supply at the moment, humility. And, since victory is to the patient, we will need patience. But I've been engaged in this stand-off between the 50's and 60's all my adult life. (ed. emphasis added) Finally, I see how much we need each other. I hope we all come to see that and give one another a break."
Meanwhile ... Blogs for Bush asks, "Should Bush 'reach across aisle?'". They answer, "Didn't he try that already in first term? And look what happened... Every time he reached out to them, they pulled the rug out from underneath him later. If you ask me, the Democrats have had plenty of opportunities to be bipartisan already and they have since lost the trust of Americans. If anything, Bush ought to move far enough to the Right that the Democrats will have to move to the Center." In typical fashion they report that he tried before, without examples cited to prove their case. Newspeak. A long 4 years are coming indeed.
Coyote Gulch wonders if we're seeing a sustainable anti-war effort cropping up.
Update: Josh Marshall: "Grant President Bush his due. He's the first president since his father to win the office with a majority of the popular vote. President Clinton, who ran twice in three-way races, came very close (49.2%) in 1996, but never did. Yet I'm interested in collecting a list of the most ludicrous overstatements of the scope of the president's victory."
Update: More anti-war heat on the administration, this time from the conservative side of the house.
Update: Josh Marshall: "Also worth noting is this article in today's Post on Rove's strategy and victory. There's a lot in here that is simply the winning team's version of events clever gambits that would have seemed foolish had the result turned out differently. But they didn't turn out differently. And it's worth understanding why and how they believe they did it."
7:52:38 AM 
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