Mixed media: Four more years of Bush

DISMAY AND ANGER

British newspaper - Bush's great trick has been to get re-elected as the man to deal with the mess he's caused. He's like an electrician who says, "Ooh, sorry mate, I've blown your house up. I'll tell you the only person who can sort that out - me."

* Mark Steel in The Independent

American Blogger - This morning I am stunned. Stunned by the overwhelming majority of votes President Bush amassed. And along with being stunned I am disillusioned. How could so many Americans think as Bush does? How could so many Americans excuse what his Administration has done to the country, both here and abroad?

* V. Edward Martin on Watch Blog

Dismayed Blogger - This election shouldn't even have been close. We have a President who has saddled the nation with record deficits and who has little clue on how to rein in spending. A President who inflicted upon the nation (and Iraq, and our allies) a costly and bloody war that should never have been waged. A President who has divided the country like none other, despite the unity we shared after 9/11. A President who has committed crimes against the environment, catered to his cronies at the expense of poor and middle-class Americans, and turned virtually the entire world against our nation.

So how did Bush even get this far? By demonising an entire group of people - gays and lesbians. By cynical appeals to religion. By slandering a true war hero. And, most importantly, by scaring people.

* US blogger Markos Moulitsas

Muslim anger - Many Governments have been largely pragmatic and played their cards carefully, even after denying George W. Bush support at the UN Security Council. In a sense, the Republican victory will not destabilise America as much as it may the Middle East, where the Governments have so far handled George W. Bush's aggression with tact. Muslims all over the world will be angry and exasperated. Muslims in the United States who thought Mr Kerry would give them relief from profiling will be heartbroken too.

* Daily Times, Pakistan

DRAMATIC VICTORY


Republican Blogger - In an election with the highest voter turnout in history, George W. Bush received the highest number of votes of any president in history. The Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle, has been defeated, and the GOP has gained seats in the House and in the Senate. Yesterday was not merely a defeat for Democrats, I believe it was a repudiation of a party that gave free rein to its most divisive and partisan impulses.

* Eric Simonson on Watch Blog

Arab view - Tuesday's presidential election in the United States debunked the conventional wisdom in a number of ways. It attracted a record number of voters, and yet, contrary to conventional wisdom, the high turnout benefited the incumbent rather than the challenger. Conventional wisdom, this time backed by a large number of opinion polls, had predicted that President George W. Bush would either win with another wafer-thin majority or lose. Having disproved conventional wisdom in so dramatic a manner, George W. Bush now has a unique opportunity to slaughter other cliches.

Bush's victory, accentuated by his party's gains in Senate, congressional and gubernatorial races, puts him in a stronger position than ever. That should help him revise his policies in Iraq, revive the Middle East peace process, and reformulate his Greater Middle East programme within a more realistic framework with the help of regional allies.

* Arab News

Florida newspaper - The huge turnout, while it may have contributed to some of the problems, was gratifying. There's nothing more inspiring than seeing people turn out in large numbers to willingly perform their civic duty. It's a reminder that despite our polarised electorate and our late inability to run trouble-free elections, American democracy is alive and well.

* South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Filipino angle - America is a conservative country. Some commentators have indicated that a surprising development in this election was that fewer Americans voted with their pocketbooks, or for change (for example in Ohio, which lost many jobs under Bush), and voted more for intangibles such as a more conservative moral agenda (the accompanying defeat in 10 states of efforts to allow gay marriage) and an old-fashioned sticking by their war leader through thick and thin (which was seen particularly strongly in the South, which also heavily contributes to the membership of the US Armed Forces).