Swindonlink reporter Alex Ogle sums up the US elections, from the University of Pittsburgh

Swindonlink reporter Alex Ogle sums up the US elections, from the University of Pittsburgh


4 November 2004

John Kerry's two year campaign is over; his concession speech called for unity, a plea that is likely to go unheeded.

On early Tuesday morning, as the polls opened in central Pittsburgh, two teenage girls stood on the pavement holding the Democrats red, white and blue Kerry/Edwards banners, waving and whooping at passing cars. Six hours later they were still there. On campus, students standing in long lines waiting to vote were cautiously optimistic.

Compared to the despairing pessimism of many Democrats only two months ago, the turnaround of the polls in last week appeared to be a relief: they realised their candidate had a good chance to take back this country.

The latest polls on the morning of November 2nd were a dead heat, with both Senator John Kerry and President George Bush tied within the margin of error. As any student could tell you over here, this implies a Kerry victory. The hidden democratic base, the 40 million newly registered voters that are not represented in national polls, could indeed tip it to the Democrats.

The atmosphere on campus Tuesday, an unusually warm, sunny November day, was contained excitement. The idea of 'rocking the vote'' of the youth taking back the country from the Texan oil men and bible-belt conservatives, heightened the tension.

A discussion waiting in line was of the perfect song to play as one walked into the polling booth; one guy I spoke to proudly said he 'rocked out' to the extended version of Lynard Skynard's classic anthem Freebird as he pulled the lever on the voting machine. "It was awesome," he said.

This is not to say the other side wasn't also feeling the heat of victory. Attending Bush's last rally in Pittsburgh early on Monday morning, I stood in the middle of 12,000 screaming Republicans.

The endless mantra of 'Four More Years' interrupted the president at every pause in his speech - which was, incidentally, word for word the same speech as the one I saw last week in Ohio.

The crowd's adulation for the president was only intensified by their outrage at democratic protestors, dragged from the scene by burly Secret Service agents half way through. The offending signs held by the demonstrators - red and blue with white stars, emblazoned with the words FOR WAR YEARS - were quickly ripped up by a nearby family unit; the young children encouraged to join in.

No media body dared to predict a victory either way, after the debacle of early predictions in the 2000 election.

However, just in the last few days, everything has gone well for John Kerry; the impact of Osama bin Laden's new videotape that surfaced Friday did not favour the president as many thought it would, and continued turmoil in Iraq is only strengthening the Democratic party's call for change.

I was fully prepared to accept that even though I could, metaphorically, fall on my face with my hands in my pockets, the charged atmosphere I can saw in the half a mile long, 5 person wide, queue to the polling station, I believed at this point, Kerry could take the presidency.

Even at four in the morning on Wednesday, there was as sliver of hope. Although Florida had fallen to Bush, and the other swing state Pennsylvania had given the Democrats a solid victory, the news channels differed in their projections of that key battleground, Ohio.

Where the conservative channel Fox News had called a Bush victory 6 hours previous, CNN maintained it was still 'too close to call'. Hours later the democrats admitted the president had won the state with too big a margin for dispute.

It is far too early for considered reaction, especially among the diehard Democrats who have been working so hard in the last few months.

"I don't know how I feel," said one Kerry campaigner to me. "All I know is that I feel sick, physically sick."

The huge turnout was expected to benefit the challenger, with the youth breaking for Kerry. As it turns out, the turnout in the South went defiantly for the President with Bush's chief political advisor Karl Rove - known sometimes as 'Bush's brain' - is being hailed as a 'political genius'.

Rove's assertion that re-election would be certain if the Republicans could turn out the fundamentalist evangelical vote - which was slightly turned away in 2000 after the revelations of Bush's drink driving conviction - turned out to be true.

The President won by over 3 million votes nationwide, a comfortable margin to be described as a popular mandate. A majority of the American public have sanctioned the president's first term; huge tax breaks to the wealthy, and the war in Iraq.

With Republican gains in both houses of Congress, Bush's second term is now being feared by many to be far more conservative than his first. Gay marriage, abortion, stem cell research and an even more aggressive foreign policy are issues that are set to plague the millions of liberal voters who were stumped on Tuesday.

"We can't even protest", complained Dave Farkas, a college student. "He won, that's it. I seriously do not understand this country."

The fear of a draft were the first worries among young people as the results came in. With people knowing I was from England, I was asked by at least a dozen individuals if they could stay with me.

'We have to get out,' was a common phrase heard in the hours after Bush victory became clearer; a day that will forever live in infamy.

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Other reports from Alex Ogle :

From www.swindonlink.com

• 28 October 2004 Bush invites Democrats to vote for him
• 02 November 2004 One last push from Bush in Pennsylvania to rally support
• 04 November 2004 Dubbya re-elected with a clear victory in the popular vote and electoral colleges

From www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk

• 28 October 2004 My snapshot of the US election
• 30 October 2004 Is time running out for the President?