[MD] Congratulations America!

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Khaled]
It was not a landslide as the Elctoral Vote makes it look a 
difference of 7,343,700 which means if 3,671,850 plus one have voted 
differently, this election would have had a different outcome.

[Arlo]
In 2004, Republicans gloated with glee (is there any other way to 
gloat?) about their "clear and decisive mandate" awared from their 
victory. This mandate, according to Bush, gave him the moral 
foundation to push ahead with his radical neoconservative agenda 
despite the pleas for centricity by moderates and liberals. Bush won 
that election with a popular vote of 62,040,610 to 59,028,444.. .a 
difference of less than 3,000,000 (compared to the 7,000,000 margin 
won by Obama). One wonders if now the same "clear and decisive 
mandate" rules apply? Or if the same people who spat on centrists in 
2004 will now argue that Obama should be more centrist and 
accommodating to the millions of citizens with differing political 
views. (And if they do, should he be? Was Bush??)

But there can be little doubt America remains bitterly divided, a 
situation fostered and preserved and egged on by the ideologues on 
both sides of the aisle.