Be a mensch, John –just do it! As of this post, Bush has 51 percent of the Ohio vote to Kerry’s 48 percent, with 99 percent of the precincts counted. (Here are the figures from Drudge). As John Podhoretz wrote for National Review late last night (which is to say, about two hours ago):
“If Kerry keeps this up and does not concede by 10 am, polls tomorrow will show 75 percent of the country thinks he ought to. There will not be a single serious Democratic politician who will take a stand on behalf of an 11-day provisional-ballot count process. And then Kerry will concede, in a genuinely humiliating display of ill grace.”
And I’m quoting this fine tribute to our president from Power Line (nice photo of W. too):
“President Bush’s reelection is a remarkable victory. He won not only an electoral college majority, he won the popular vote. He won not only the popular vote, he appears to have won an outright majority of the popular vote, something no president has done since 1988. Yet his victory was not only a personal triumph, it was also a triumph of party. Republicans increased their majority in both the House and the Senate.
“President Bush won this remarkable victory in the face of a campaign of disinformation the likes of which we have not seen since the heyday of the Big Lie, and in the face of an orgy of hatred…the likes of which we have not seen in the West since the days of the Nuremberg rallies. From Leni Riefenstahl to Michael Moore — what a falling off was there!
“We will certainly have occasion to contemplate the fortunes of the Democratic Party and its adjuncts in the media and the academy. For the moment, however, let us satisfy ourselves with a salute to the president in his moment of triumph.”
And this fine nonpartisan statement from Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters:
“One aspect of this election that may have been lost in all this analysis is that we successfully held a national election in the middle of the war on terror — and while we had a highly negative and immature discourse, no one shied away from speaking out, and we turned out in record numbers (at least it looks that way now), rather than cower under our beds. Democrat or Republican, Libertarian or Green, pat yourselves on the back. You just won a major battle against the terrorists.”
O frabjous day! So, John, are you and your lawyer pal John Edwards really going to put us through a month of litigation’ John, John, be a man.
Oh, and I can’t wait to hear more about those Dem proposals to abolish the Electoral College.
Update: According to the latest Drudge account, Kerry has finally decided to concede and will call Bush at 1 p.m. today. Your finest hour, John. You’ve done right by yourself, your country, and the democratic system under which we both live, a system that is fragile in a world of tyranny and terrorism, and yet resilient because people like you are willing to honor it.