::Sunday, November 07, 2004::
AMERICA HAS SPOKEN
..In the end, Americans chose not to change leadership and direction in a time of terrorism and economic uncertainty. It would be a mistake, however, to interpret this as a wide mandate for the President considering that this is still a closely divided country. President Bush is now presented with a great opportunity to reach out and unite the whole nation. Great and seemingly insurmountable challenges lie ahead in terms of foreign policy, immigration and the ability of the US to lead the world in fighting terrorism. It requires a lot of diplomacy and certainly less unilateral action to bring the world together to take on the problems of the 21st century. We have not even mentioned AIDS, the environment and global population. The religious right's penchant for focusing on the wrong battles over gay marriage and proselytism will not help the president focus on the right stuff. He will have to look beyond his base and religious constituency and reach out to Democrats and immigrants in order to bring about a broad coalition of unity and preserve the ideals of democracy and freedom that America stands for.
