Giving Thanks

I am thankful the Presidential election was decisive and peaceful. From USA Today:

After months of predictions of a too-close-to-call contest, Bush won nationwide balloting 51%-48%, making him the 15th president elected to a second term and the first to win both a majority of the popular vote and the Electoral College since his father in 1988. The GOP also extended its majorities in the House and Senate.

The results give Bush the public mandate and congressional support he needs to sustain his policies in Iraq and the war on terror. His re-election, which avoids the fate his father suffered at the hands of Bill Clinton in 1992, also gives him a stronger base to pursue a conservative domestic agenda that includes making permanent the $1.9 trillion in tax cuts won in his first term.

I am thankful that Senator Kerry conceded gracefully and swiftly.

But in an American election, there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake up as Americans.

That is the greatest privilege and the most remarkable good fortune that can come to us on Earth.

With that gift also comes obligation. We are required now to work together for the good of our country.

In the days ahead, we must find common cause. We must join in common effort, without remorse or recrimination, without anger or rancor. America is in need of unity and longing for a larger measure of compassion.

I am thankful that Osama bin Laden has no power over the American people. Claudia Rosett writes:

History tells us that every age brings forth monsters. That we have on our hands a bin Laden who would like to command the world is nothing unusual. What's extraordinary is that we live in a world in which democracy is becoming the norm, in which a peeved and rambling bin Laden must try from his hidey-hole to hitch his terror wagon to an American election. That doesn't rule out his doing more murder--which is all he's got. But the world needs to understand that this is the bid of a man who knows he's losing, and hopes if he just pipes up loud enough, we won't notice.

I am thankful that Peggy Noonan has returned to the pages of Opinion Journal. Her writing is always something to savor:

God bless our country.

Hello, old friends. Let us savor.

Let us get our heads around the size and scope of what happened Tuesday. George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States, became the first incumbent president to increase his majority in both the Senate and the House and to increase his own vote (by over 3.5 million) since Franklin D. Roosevelt, political genius of the 20th century, in 1936. This is huge.

George W. Bush is the first president to win more than 50% of the popular vote since 1988. (Bill Clinton failed to twice; Mr. Bush failed to last time and fell short of a plurality by half a million.) The president received more than 59 million votes, breaking Ronald Reagan's old record of 54.5 million. Mr. Bush increased his personal percentages in almost every state in the union. He carried the Catholic vote and won 42% of the Hispanic vote and 24% of the Jewish vote (up from 19% in 2000.)

It will be hard for the mainstream media to continue, in the face of these facts, the mantra that we are a deeply and completely divided country. But they'll try!

And I am thankful that George W. Bush is our President and will return for a second term.