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4-11-2004 Scotsman Gracious Kerry calls president to concede By Diplomatic Correspondent Gethin Chamberlain HE CLUNG on and clung on, hoping for a miracle, hoping that, somehow, the dwindling piles of ballot papers might still contain enough votes to carry him across the finishing line ahead of his rival. But for John Kerry, it was not to be. At 4:02pm yesterday he picked up the phone, dialled the Oval Office and spoke to George Bush. "Congratulations, Mr President," he said, and the 2004 United States election race was over. It had been a bitter and brutal campaign, and it was all the harder for Mr Kerry because the early exit polls had suggested it would be Mr Bush who would have to make that call, and Mr Kerry who would be looking forward to spending the next four years in the White House. Still, he managed to be dignified in defeat. Mr Bush, he said, had been a worthy, tough and honourable opponent. The president returned the compliment. The Massachusetts senator had been an admirable, worthy opponent who had waged "one tough campaign", he admitted. "I hope you are proud of the effort you put in. You should be," he told Mr Kerry. They spoke for barely four minutes, but it was long enough to touch on the issue at the heart of this most polarised of campaigns. The country was too divided, Mr Kerry told the president. "We really have to do something about it," he said, and Mr Bush agreed. After he put down the phone, Mr Bush turned to his aides. The beaten man had been "very gracious", he told them. But he must have known that there was an uncomfortable truth in what Mr Kerry had said. Throughout the campaign, and long into yesterday morning, America had been the dis-United States. More people turned out to vote in this election than in any poll since 1968 - 120 million in total - but they remained as divided along party lines as they had been when it took the US Supreme Court to separate the two candidates in 2000. And even staring defeat in the face yesterday morning, with hope trickling away, the Democrats could not bring themselves to concede that it was all over, that they faced another four years in the political wilderness. Senator John Edwards, Mr Kerry's running mate, made a brief appearance in front of a crowd of supporters at Copley Square in Boston to announce that he and the presidential candidate were not yet ready to concede. "It's been a long time, but we've waited four years for this victory," he told them. "We can wait one more night." The Republicans, for their part, could not disguise their frustration at the Democrats' refusal to accept the inevitable. Ohio was lost - there was simply no chance that Mr Kerry could find the votes he needed to snatch it at the last. "I hope over the course of the day the obvious reality will become apparent," the majority leader, Senator Bill Frist, observed, with an air of annoyance. The plan had been for Mr Bush to make an early appearance to claim victory, but with the Democrats still clinging on to what little hope they had left, that was pushed back. Instead, the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, came out to assert that the president had won a "convincing Electoral College victory" despite the lack of any independent affirmation. But they would let Mr Kerry think about it a little longer. "President Bush decided to give Senator Kerry the respect of more time to reflect on the results of this election," Mr Card said. Others were more impatient: "This is over, you're out," said the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The Democrats were clearly conscious of the criticism of Al Gore's decision to concede too early in the 2000 race, but as the hours went by it became clear that theirs was a lost cause. The popular vote had gone against Mr Kerry, and there was no way that, even with the help of his party's army of lawyers, he could overhaul the incumbent in the key states of Florida and Ohio. He made the call. Later, he told his supporters gathered outside Boston's Faneuil Hall that there had been nothing to gain by fighting on. "We cannot win this election," he said, in an emotional campaign farewell. Let America be America again had been his campaign slogan, and he went back to what he had said to Mr Bush, to the need to reunite the US. "We had a good conversation, we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity, for finding common ground and coming together," he said. "Today, I hope we can begin the healing." Mr Bush appeared an hour later, his wife by his side, his daughters looking on. He had gone to bed at about 5am US time, still uncertain of victory. Two hours later, he was awake again and heading for the Oval Office with his father, former president George Bush Snr. Now he stood at the podium and spoke of the future. The US, he said, was entering a season of hope. The military would be successful and would come home - domestic policies would be addressed. And then he, too, turned his attention to the great divide that had appeared in the country, the alienation felt by the 48 per cent who had not voted for him. If he was to achieve his goals, he needed the broad support of the American people, and especially those who had voted for Mr Kerry. "I will need your support and I will work to earn it," the president said. There was no limit to the greatness of the United States, he added. But if the country was to achieve that greatness, it had to go forward as one nation.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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