Bush leads world's lone superpower with new mandate

1.00pm - By RUPERT CORNWELL in Washington


With a mandate of full legitimacy at last, George W. Bush will be at the helm of the world's lone superpower for the next four years, leading an America more divided yet under more complete Republican party control than at any time in its recent history.

Democratic challenger John Kerry bowed to the inevitable and called the President at the White House to concede the election. Four hours later Mr Bush went before the American people and the world, promising to put the bitter campaign behind him and reach out to opponents at home and often sceptical allies abroad.

The 'three-to-four' minute call between victor and vanquished was a polite and cordial ending to perhaps the most polarising campaign in modern US history.

According to Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, the President turned to his advisers after putting down the phone, telling them that his opponent had been "very gracious."

Then Mr Bush embraced and hugged his chief of staff Andy Card. After an anxious 15 hours, a second term was sure. Then Mr Kerry went before his disappointed supporters in Boston's historic Faneuil Hall to give his concession speech.

His voice hoarse, his face showing a rare emotion after what may well be his own last campaign as well, the Massachusetts senator congratulated the President.

He insisted however that the themes of his campaign would not die. There was "a desperate need for unity and common ground" in America.

"Today," Mr Kerry said in what amounted to a public plea to Mr Bush to move towards the middle ground, "I hope we can begin the healing. America needs unity and a larger measure of compassion."

In his own address to his supporters, the President would talk of how he had been "humbled by the outpouring of support for his candidacy," - a support that gave Mr Bush 51 per cent of the total popular vote, and an unprecedented 58.7m individual votes, the most ever achieved by a US presidential candidate.

For all his promises to mend fences, the victory has placed Mr Bush in the most commanding position of his Presidency. Not since his father in 1988 has a US President won an outright majority of the popular vote. Unlike his father, he has won a second and final term.

He has fought his last election and is beholden to no-one - either at home or abroad.


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Financial markets rose after his victory, largely from relief that there would be no repeat of the unsettling confusion of Florida four years ago. But the gains also reflected the hope that having secured this week's victory by appealing to his base, he will now reach out to the country as a whole.

For its part, the world awaits Mr Bush's next moves with a mixture of caution, apprehension and not a little scepticism. The first test of whether the election has given birth to a new Bush will come at an Asian summit later this month.

But, many critics fear, if anything this President may be even more convinced of the rightness of America's cause.

On the campaign trail and in his debates with Mr Kerry, he famously refused to admit the slightest mistake - and won the backing of a majority of his countrymen for his pains. For them, Mr Bush is the man best equipped to keep the country safe, and protect traditional values.

Moreover the governing system which he heads will bed is even more solidly Republican than before. Mr Bush's party consolidated its monopoly of the executive and legislative branches, by making significant further gains in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Democrats retain the 41 Senate seats needed to mount a filibuster against measures they particularly dislike. But, after the stunning defeat of their skilled and experienced minority leader Tom Daschle, they will find it harder than ever to withstand Republican pressure. The party faces both a short-term leadership crisis and a long term crisis of identity.


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The real questions last night however were about future government, not past campaigns. Could a re-elected Bush reach out to unite a country which, despite his unarguable 51 per cent majority of the popular vote is more polarised than ever?

Mr Bush is loved and loathed in equal measure. The intensity of passions was evidenced by a turnout of some 58 per cent, the highest since the 1960s.

In short deeds, not words, will be the proof of the President's intentions. The first test will be the legislative agenda he sends to the Republican-controlled Congress. Will he, for instance, push for yet more tax cuts, and a possible part-privatisation of social security, bitterly opposed by the Democrats? Will his Supreme Court nominations (Mr Bush is all but certain to make at least two during his second term) be centrists or rightwing ideologues?

Alternatively, he could surprise his opponents by seeking some form of compromise to bring the federal budget deficit under control, and by nominating relatively moderate figures to the federal bench and the Court itself. An indication could come very soon.

Many too will recall his pledge, in a 2000 campaign debate with Mr Gore, that if America acted with humility, it could work well with the rest of the world. In the event, well before 9/11, Mr Bush had unilaterally rejected the Kyoto agreement, and pulled of weapons agreements.

A big clue will come from the national security team Mr Bush assembles for his second term. Donald Rumsfeld, bete noire of the 'Old Europe,' is likely to stay on at the Pentagon, for a while at least.

But Colin Powell, seen as a lone moderate among hawks, is expected to step down soon. Among possible replacements are the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, or possibly his deputy Richard Armitage.

Most important perhaps, Dick Cheney, the prime architect of the administration's uncompromising foreign policy and perhaps the most influential vice-President in US history, will remain present at Mr Bush's shoulder.

The deepest lesson of all however is that the country remains utterly divided, along now familiar lines.

For the wider world, the question is whether Mr Bush will soften his unilateralist, uncompromising style, and try to repair frayed relations with traditional allies in Europe and elsewhere - many of whom who had privately yearned for the President's defeat. But his re-election, this time with an unmistakeable popular mandate, gives him no special incentive to do so.

- INDEPENDENT