Much ballyhooed is the 51% mandate that now grants President Bush his needed political capital, but I'm still numbed that the race was close at all. Barring any new developments regarding election 2004, this will be my last missive and I shall move on to other matters worthy of writing upon here. And, here is a comprehensive roundup of all the election result data, showing that all the results weren't captured by Republicans – Democrats made gains in state legislatures and had three million more composite votes for U.S. Senate candidates.

In any case, I'm still in disbelief how:

• 51% of you blessed the inept management of the war against Al-Qaeda and terrorism. From failure and incompetence to carry out an efficient campaign to allowing Osama bin Laden to escape when he should have been captured.
  
  
• 51% of voters could sanction an administration that misled the public about the justification for an immoral, unjust invasion of a sovereign nation that did not threaten the United States, and has resulted in the needless slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent women and children.
  
  
• 51% of you could condone the torture and abuse that occured at the Abu Ghraib prison, especially considering that according to the US Army's own report, 60% of the detainees did not belong in the prison.
  
  
• 51% issued a pronouncement that a rise in poverty, increase in Americans without health insurance and continued concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is beneficial.
  
  
• 51% of you agreed that outsourcing of knowlege jobs in computing, engineering and other technical disciplines should continue unabated, and that a brain drain siphoning off our technical capacity and the loss of high paying jobs was a positive trend that needed no correction or addressing.
  
  
• 51% of you casting your ballots felt that subpar economic performance including a decline in median income, lower stock indexes, higher gasoline prices, and Bush's dubious distinction of becoming the first president to end the term with a net reduction in the number of total jobs since Herbert Hoover was not cause for ouster.
  
  
• 51% of you thought that a man who cowardly dodged duty in a war he publicly supported was of greater character than a man who served his country on the frontline, got wounded, and then after returning home, spoke out against a war he did not support. Both men were privileged, but one skipped out on his duty in the states, while the other earned medals. Kerry was on that boat – where was George W. Bush in 1972?
  
  
• 51% of you acted to enable more abortions, despite your stated desire for the contrary.
  
  
• 51% of you stated that corporate interests should trump the public interest.
  
  

Some post election predictions:

• Continued increase in the ranks of those in poverty and those without health insurance.
• Boost to corporate privatization of public services that empower a transfer of wealth from working and middle class Americans to brokers, insurance company coffers and others politically connected to the Bush cartel.
• Further concentration of wealth that places more of the ownership society into the hands of fewer.
• Rise in the number of gated communities to keep the haves and have nots apart.
• Graft and corruption that exceeds anything seen in the first four years, and will far surpass the sordid record of the Reagan/Bush 41. Of course, with control of all the branches of government, there may be no enforcement.
• Supreme court justice replacement with individuals more objectionable than Scalia and Thomas. Strict constructionist is a codeword for someone with a far right bent.
• Continued erosion of civil liberties and freedom of speech.
• Enforcement of draconian intellectual property laws that inhibit freedom and creativity and instead reward media industry with monopolistic powers.