So John Kerry has conceded.  Now we can move forward, thank goodness it is over.

As you know I supported President Bush - reluctantly - but I am not going to gloat.  Frankly we have serious problems in our country and although I preferred Bush to Kerry one man cannot solve them all.  We need to get back together as friends and neighbors and colleagues and Americans, and work together on our problems.

I think it is wonderful that there were no terrorist attacks.  We had a peaceful election, a fruitful exchange of ideas, some good debates about what is good for the future of our country.  Now we have to get to work.

Although the Republicans increased their majorities in the Congress and retained the White House, this election was not a unanimous mandate for conservatism.  I see this more as a repudiation of the Democrats' liberalism.  One has to wonder what might have happened with a Democratic candidate who was closer to the center - someone like Joe Lieberman or indeed someone like Al Gore, or at least the 2000 version of Al Gore.  I see this as a mandate for active defense, a mandate for active protection, a mandate for U.S. leadership in the world.  I see this as a mandate for fiscal responsibility (although the Bush administration could hardly be considered a model for this during their first term; hopefully they will do as they said and not do as they did in their second term).

Two things stand out for me about this election.  First and foremost, the "old media" northeast liberal bias was truly exposed.  Clearly CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN, and the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the L.A.Times do not represent America, and they lost credibilty and readership.  It will take them a long time to rebuild the trust.  They need to go back to being journalists, and stop trying to be entertainers and politicians.  Secondly, the power of the Internet for "open source" communication was truly revealed.  Not only in blogs but all kinds of news sites, all kinds of one-to-one and one-to-many communication.  The power of the Internet to route around the blockage of big media was impressive and amazing.