The Aftermath
Two words seemed to shift the world a little in the last week: “Kerry Concedes”. That was a little hard to swallow. Well, okay, it sucked.
I’m not a fan of President Bush, and I’m sorry (or not) to say that I probably never will be. Despite that fact, I also honestly thought that John Kerry would be the next President of the United States. But, I was wrong.
First of all, let me just say how fascinating it was to watch an American election on the front line in the eyes of an outsider. The elections over here are vastly different from the elections we have back in Australia – so I found the whole system to be an extremely interesting learning experience.
In the lead-up to this election, from my viewpoint, at first, it seemed like Bush had it in the bag. It really seemed that way. The media seemed to be ‘backing up’ the big man, rather than doing their job and keeping him and his administration accountable by asking them the hard questions. There just never seemed to be any questioning the government’s actions and decisions for a long time.
But that soon eventually changed. Fahrenheit 9/11 came out – which was a breath of fresh air compared to the dried donkey dung the US media were trying to shove copiously down our throats. Interestingly enough, the Michael Moore documentary did very well, and opened up the eyes of a lot of people – particularly to how much the media wasn’t actually doing their damn job.
v But after this release, the whole media focus shifted somewhat. Questions did become more common place. Especially when it was announced we went into Iraq on the basis of false and misleading intelligence.
By the time the Presidential Debates had come and gone, in my mind, it really did appear that Kerry would win. Not only did he seem to appeal to lot of people I spoke to, but he was actually able to say words like “background” and “proliferation” – words that Mr. Bush had quite a bit of difficulty with.
Either way, by the time the election day came, and it was noticeable that it was a record-setting turn out for voters, it appeared to me that Kerry had it in the bag.
But it turned out the be quite the opposite.
I was very surprised to see Bush win… but don’t let those Republicans get TOO deluded… this election was the CLOSEST election since 1916. The closest election in nearly 100 years. This was no landslide victory for Bush… it was luck.
Already, other countries are ridiculing Americans asking, “how many millions of people could be so dumb?” I shit you not, one UK magazine actually used that caption on their front cover the day after the election. There’s many people out there questioning why Bush got re-elected. US citizens are applying to Canada, New Zealand and Australia to immigrate to these nations – to get away from a second Bush admin. They are questioning why he got back in office…
I honestly question this myself. This guy and his administration have openly lied to the nation – and been caught out on it. Remember the Weapons of Mass Destruction? Remember Rumsfeld saying he knew exactly where they were? Bush even mentioned that “they attacked us first” when in reference to Iraq – even though Saddam Hussein evidently had nothing to do with 9/11.
Still, I guess we should face facts. Even though it was a close election, he DID win, and so fair’s fair right?
2008 is a long way away. But all that aside, the next few blogs will most likely focus very strongly on things related to this election.
I’ll close with my personal view. Bush scares me. He scares me because I do not think he has both the brains and balls to effectively lead a nation. I worry that more soldiers and innocents will lose their lives because of decisions he makes. I worry about this a lot.
He has 4 more years. May God help us all.
By the way, here’s 17 reasons to not slit your wrists.
Leave a Reply