President George W. Bush Wins Second Term; Kerry Concedes

President George W. Bush won a second term in the White House in the presidential election of November 3, 2004.

The Republican president and his running-mate, Vice-President Dick Cheney, won 62,040,610 votes – 50.73% – to carry 31 states and secure 286 electoral college votes.

Bush’s Democratic Party opponent, Senator John Kerry, won 59,028,444 votes – 48.27% – to carry 19 states plus the District of Columbia, and secure 252 electoral college votes.

Bush’s winning margin was the smallest ever for a re-elected president. There was one ‘faithless elector’ from Minnesota who voted for John Edwards, reducing Kerry to 251 electoral college votes. [Read more…]


New York Times Endorses John Kerry For President

This is the text of an editorial in the New York Times.

New York Times editorial, October 17, 2004.

NYTSenator John Kerry goes toward the election with a base that is built more on opposition to George W. Bush than loyalty to his own candidacy. But over the last year we have come to know Mr. Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo. We like what we’ve seen. He has qualities that could be the basis for a great chief executive, not just a modest improvement on the incumbent.

We have been impressed with Mr. Kerry’s wide knowledge and clear thinking – something that became more apparent once he was reined in by that two-minute debate light. He is blessedly willing to re-evaluate decisions when conditions change. And while Mr. Kerry’s service in Vietnam was first over-promoted and then over-pilloried, his entire life has been devoted to public service, from the war to a series of elected offices. He strikes us, above all, as a man with a strong moral core. [Read more…]


Bush And Kerry Meet In First Presidential Debate

President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry have met in the first presidential debate of the 2004 US election campaign.

The debate was moderated by Jim Lehrer.

Transcript of the first presidential debate between Republican President George W. Bush and his Democratic Party opponent, Senator John Kerry.

LEHRER:

Good evening from the University of Miami Convocation Center in Coral Gables, Florida. I’m Jim Lehrer of “The NewsHour” on PBS.

And I welcome you to the first of the 2004 presidential debates between President George W. Bush, the Republican nominee, and Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.

These debates are sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. [Read more…]


Jeff Koopersmith: When A Tough Guy President Fails

Inviting Osama bin Laden to the Oval Office

By Jeff Koopersmith

As I was watching the somewhat obsessive Bob Woodward on “Charlie Rose” the other night, I was flabbergasted by Woodward’s insight when he said that Americans may re-elect George W. Bush because voters see him as a “tough guy.” His reasoning is that in these times, voters may believe that a roughhouse president is what the nation needs to combat what Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge believes will be an inevitable follow-up attack on the United States by Islamic fundamentalists, alive and well in Afghanistan and Pakistan despite what the White House tells us. [Read more…]