I'm actually enjoying the thread as it is very civilized. I've seem these type of thing turn ugly very fast, though.

I can give you my two cent's worth (European prvodes a better value than US cents though ;-) ). Bush won the election because he got over three million more votes and the absolute majority of the electoral college. That's the obvious one. Secondly, in order to win, the Bush campaign had three choices, a) make Democrats vote for Bush, b) make Independents or undecided vote for Bush, c) make conservatives and Republicans vote for Bush. The campaign tried a little bit of a) and b) but excelled at c). So, why was c) so successful? Because the campaign mobilized conservative voter who might otherwise not have voted. So, instead of focusing on the existing voter pool, the Bush campaign added more Republican-voting people to the pool. Also, if one would look at the states that Bush and Keery won, one will see that the states are virtually identical with, I believe three exceptions. New Hampshire switched from Republican to Democrat (comparing the election results from 2000 to 2004) and the two "battleground" states of voted Bush. Additionally, Bush also won 31 states, thus form whatever point you look at it, he garnered the majority.

This mean that his campaign was more successful in making people vote for him by addressing specific topics of value for those particular voters. Some voted for him because they're against gay marriage, stem cell research, for the War Against Terror, or something else.

What one has to remember though is, that in the US a lot of discussions are being reduced to so-called sound bites and the 15 minutes of fame associated with them. What I'm missing are in-depth discussions of various topics, neither of which either Kerry or Bush performed. For most voters it's more about the "for or against" decision and about stability of convictions, a.k.a no "flip-flopping". Also, if somebody says I'm against the War on Terror but I support the troops, a lot of people see this as contradictory statements.

My personal pet peeve is the fact that the United states are virutally bankrupt as Congress is required to raise the National Debt Ceiling by the end of this year in order for the Federal Governmnet to continue paying it's bills. Combine this with changing demographics, i.e. increased retirement by the Baby boomer generation, and there's a huge problem ahead for the US (as several European countries incl. Germany, as well).

Anyway, I didn't vote (not eligible due to lack of Citizenship) but I'll accept the results of a democratic process independent of whether it suits my personal convicion or not. There's a new chance in tow (Congress/Senate) or four (President) years. It'll be interesting to see who's going to run for President on the Republican side then (Schwartzenegger, Romney, Cheney, McCain,...).
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