What We Did and What We Need to Do

The polls have closed and the nation's voters have spoken. Sen. Barack Obama has been elected as the 44th President of the United States. The results were closer than the overwhelming landslide that many predicted, but a landslide is not necessary to elect a president. Looking at the election results, one thing is abundantly clear, this election was a complete and thorough repudiation of George W. Bush. In doing so, voters rejected Bush the man as much if not more than the Bush presidency.

Exit polls show that over 70% of voters disapproved of the job George W. Bush did as president. Two-thirds said that the Iraq War was a mistake. And nearly three quarters said that the country was on the wrong track. These results are the fruits not solely of Bush's policies, they are equally the results of a relentless eight-year campaign by Democrats to discredit Bush. Those efforts started in the aftermath of the 2000 election, when many Democrats refused to recognize the legitimacy of Bush's election. Cries of "selected not elected," and bumper stickers proclaiming Bush to be,"Not MY President!," were the leading edge of the tide. Interrupted only for the briefest of moments after the September 11th attacks, the attacks on the Bush presidency were steady, organized, and focused. By contrast, the Bush White House did almost nothing to defend itself from them.

Obama represents everything that Bush is perceived not to be as a result of those efforts. He is educated, eloquent, and reasonable. He is also the most liberal man elected president in modern American history. In another election cycle, with another predecessor, it may not have been enough to give speeches filled with soaring rhetoric. But after eight years of non-stop partisanship, the country wanted to feel good again almost as much as it wanted a new policy direction. Evidence of than can be seen in that a majority of voters making over $250,000 a year voted for Obama. They voted against their interest for a man who campaigned on raising their taxes. It shows that perhaps, substance was not as important as style this year.

Now that the election is over, Americans of both political persuasions must come together as a nation and support the incoming administration. There will be points to argue, and fights to be had. But a repeat of the bitterness that accompanied George W. Bush into the White House must not be allowed to happen. Conservatives must disagree without being disagreeable. And liberals must resist the temptation to run rough-shod over the government in their zeal to enact favored policies. Let there be time for debate and respect for all points of view. George W. Bush, a thoroughly decent man, was never afforded that courtesy. History will show him to have been more right than wrong, and not nearly as deserving of the treatment his administration received from his political opponents and the press. It would be a tragedy for the country if four or eight years from now, the same is said about President Obama.