In light of Bush's recent victory in the United States presidential election

Bush did not win on policy or action. Instead, polls indicate Bush won on moral values; on principles; and on his better image. Consider this election a triumphant victory by the Republican spindoctors, destroying their Democratic counterparts. A president that suffered the first loss of jobs in recent memory, the president who vacationed while Al Qaeda planned their attacks, the president who was utterly destroyed in the presidential debates, has been given a significant mandate or "political capital" as he likes to say, given the domination of his party in the Senate and House of Representatives, and achieving over fifty percent of the vote, something remarkably even the likes of Clinton did not do.

Much of Bush's appeal sits with his Southern, traditionalist American image. The president appeals to those individualist, America-centric 'patriots'; they see Bush as a strong, America-focused leader, refusing to bow down to foreign pressures. They believe that Bush will do whatever necessary to ensure the best for America first and foremost, and any international concerns should be secondary at best to American interests. A friend of mine made the remark that "Kerry was a very European politician." Very apt- say you get your ass kicked by another kid at school. If Bush is your dad, he's just going to go over and kick the kid's ass, no questions asked. Kerry will file a complaint with the school board over this 'inappropriate behaviour.' Oooooooh! I'm ALMOST going to write a VERY stern letter about this!!!!

Polls can be notoriously inaccurate, of course- the Zogby poll predicted a significant Kerry victory- but exit polls showed that Bush found favour with eighty percent of those voters whose largest concern was terrorism. Looking at this statistic in combination with how the votes broke down- essentially, the (Midwest, South, etc) states that will be the last places to suffer an attack controlled the fates of those states that will be most likely to be attacked. Is you friendly neighbourhood mujahideen going to attack Nowheresville, South Dakota, or Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York? Indeed, a commanding three quarters of NY voters voted for Kerry- and yet, the leader that they desired to ensure their safety will not be in government.

Irony at it's most dangerous.