NYT: Shared Values Provides Bush Majority ("a center-right country")

[DeepModem Mom]

Electoral Affirmation of Shared Values Provides Bush a Majority
By TODD S. PURDUM

Published: November 4, 2004


It was not a landslide, or a re-alignment, or even a seismic shock. But it was decisive, and it is impossible to read President Bush's re-election with larger Republican majorities in both houses of Congress as anything other than the clearest confirmation yet that this is a center-right country - divided yes, but with an undisputed majority united behind his leadership.

Surveys of voters leaving the polls found that a majority believed the national economy was not so good, that tax cuts had done nothing to help it and that the war in Iraq had jeopardized national security. But fully one-fifth of voters said they cared most about "moral values" - as many as cared about terrorism and the economy - and 8 in 10 of them chose Mr. Bush.

In other words, while Mr. Bush remains a polarizing figure on both coasts and in big cities, he has proved himself a galvanizing one in the broad geographic and political center of the country. He increased his share of the vote among women, Hispanics, older voters and even city dwellers significantly from 2000, made slight gains among Catholics and Jews and turned what was then a 500,000-popular-vote defeat into a 3.6 million-popular-vote victory on Tuesday.

The president's chief strategist, Matthew Dowd, released a memorandum yesterday noting that Mr. Bush had become the first incumbent Republican president to win a presidential race with majorities in the House and Senate since Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and the first president of either party since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 to be re-elected while gaining seats in both houses....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics/campaign/04assess.html

[rooboy]

1. If America is now a "center-right" country...

and the people really care about moral values, then:

1. Get Rush Limbaugh off the air.
2. Get Bill O'Reilly off the air.
3. Make Ann Coulter drop her pants and prove her gender.

Until then, the moral majority can go Cheney themselves.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. "Right" on, rooboy!

[itzamirakul]

7. RACISM-PLAIN AND SIMPLE

Why do we all keep hiding from the fact that it is the hidden agenda of racism that keeps the central and southern parts of America glued together in support of Bush? All the other issues are merely smokescreens to disguise the real reasons for Bush's support. Why are
Democrats afraid to confront this reality head on? Why are we afraid to confront Limbaugh's daily racial rantings?

[atreides1]

16. Exactly

Racism along with homophobia, warmongering, and cowardice. Not to mention the re-emergence of Puritanism.

[GiovanniC]

13. I'd Rather Ann Kept Her Pants on, Frankly

[rocktivity]

14. Bush won by THREE points, not thirty.

Hardly grounds for a mandate to govern. As many people hate Bush as support him--that hasn't changed.

SNAP OUT OF IT!!!


rocknation

[atreides1]

17. Real Values Mean Nothing To Them

Remember they value a man who has lied to get his country into a war, they admire Rudy for how he acted on 9/11 and conviently forget that he violated one of God's commandments, but they call Clinton an evil man for the same thing.

The 58,000,000 who voted for Bush have no concept of morals or values,
they are just plain and simple racist. They hate, they don't love, they want to lord over those that they feel are inferior to them. They are as Christian as a Satanist.

And the amendment against gay marriage is still in play. Yesterday someone here said that it was a dead issue, but I guess that was before Bush gave his speech and listed that as one of the domestic policies he was pushing.

By the way Bush wants the US to become "a culture of life", but this does not apply to the death penalty, war, or the poor dying. This only applies to abortion.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. He will work to earn our support, my Aunt Fannie.

In the New York Times they're claiming he has a mandate. We all know what that means.

[rooboy]

4. A "mandate" is what happens...

when George and Victor Ashe get together down at the ranch in Crawford.

[high density]

5. Center-right

Is this guy serious? There is nothing centrist about George Bush.

[Triana]

6. He wasn't RE elected and we're going BACK to 1924 (n/t)

[fishnfla]

8. I think I'm going to be sick

I knew this was coming. The pundits are now gonna beat us over the head with this mandate shit.

The scary part is the hard right is going to use this claim to disenfranchise even larger sections of this country: single moms, the poor, minorities. They will use harsh rhetoric and worse( physical force), they will run rough-shod wherever they think they can.

Has 9/11 brought an end to our country as a republic? Yes.

[54anickel]

9. Heh, but 2 in 10 that picked "values" voted against the SOB and it was

only 1/5 that chose values, just as many that chose terrorism and the economy. If 2 in 10 voted against the idiot, how shared are values really? "Values" could have meant anything to the people choosing that answer.

Don't drink the kool-aid! If Rove was the one that got moral values put into the multiple choice he may very well regret it. There was another article from the NYT talking about a revolution within the Repuke party. This may cause a lot of in-fighting, let's hope they implode.

Those who voted for him are all expecting something in return - Robertson with his hands off Jerusalem or we'll create our own party threat, other fundies with their supreme court demands and over turning Roe V Wade, the demand for banning gay marriage, the demand for tax cuts, corporate friendly policies, privatizing SS, the list of demands goes on and on. Can he deliver on all of them?

Promises made, promises broken.

[KittyWampus]

10. America Is A Diebold Country & May Never Have Another Valid Election

the exit polls were correct.

Why would exit polls be valid in every other country except America.

[llmart]

11. Oh, puleeze....

Serve up that shit to people who may believe it, but not me. 140,000 stolen votes in Ohio does not a mandate make and neither does 51% of the vote. Now the corporate media will try to shove this "center-right" shit down our throats. Can't be just "centrist" can it? The NY Times has lost all credibility with me. The state of NY hates Bush except for the uneducated rural voters.

I'm proud to make this distinction and be a part of it. Let's all remember what the profile of the Kerry voter is vs. the profile of the Bush voter? You got it. We're the educated ones - they're the Wal-Mart, beer swilling, highschool or less voter. It's plain and simple. Less than 25% of the population has a college degree. Those are the likely Bush supporters.

[yorkiemommie1]

12. exactly, more spin

They will have to pry my principles from my cold, dead hands. I. will. never. adopt. their. agenda.

[Lorien]

15. IT WAS FEAR

This "values" meme is even being swallowed by the left-I can't believe it! Rove's work was geared entirely towards keeping the ignorant populace afraid; just look at all the bloody commercials!

The media is just forcing the "values" concept on us to make BushCo seem more benign (bigotry vs.terrorism-and Rove is the terrorist)! Don't buy it.