Nov. 3 — It was hard to keep my eyes open as I stumbled in the general direction of the Emerald office. I had stayed up nearly all night eating cake and watching the returns. Long after my wife had gone to bed, I was downstairs with just the light of the TV, loading up on sugar and caffeine to keep awake for any breaking developments.
When consciousness finally left me, I slumped down on the couch for a few hours of rest, still not 100 percent certain if President Bush had been re-elected. Little did I know that I was about to get one of the best wake-up calls of my life. I snapped awake as Dan Rather announced that John Kerry was about to concede — and he had the memos to prove it.
I ran upstairs to wake my wife and share the good news. Though she
didn’t share my level of early-morning enthusiasm, she managed a thumbs-up and a hug. I polished off the rest of our election-night cake and headed for the office.
All around me, people moved like zombies. I’m sure they had stayed up late as well. I collapsed on my desk, exhausted. No way was I going to class today. At long last the election was over, and my horse had won. I needed about a week and a half of vacation.
Fast forward two and a half months, and I am pumped. President Bush is going to be sworn in to his second term Thursday. The three day, $30 million GOP end-zone dance is a chance for Bush supporters to chant “four more years” for the last time until Jeb runs for re-election in 2012.
In 2000, George Bush wasn’t my first choice for president. He wasn’t even my second or third. I was for John McCain all the way. But Bush is what we got, and if you ask me, he ain’t half bad. I know that statement is bound to get me in trouble on this tolerant and accepting campus, but I’ll take the risk.
I’m not a Republican, and I’ve never voted a straight ticket for either party. But there was no competition between the two candidates for president this year. Is Bush my ideal pick for leader of the free world? No. But until those clowns at the DNC can scrounge up a halfway-respectable candidate, I will continue to stand by my man, G-Dub.
I am as upset and outraged as the next guy about the extremely disappointing choices presented to the voters in the national elections lately. But I don’t get too hung up on the lesser-of-two-evils issue, because I’m trying to make peace with the reality of American politics — you go to the polls with the candidates you have, not the candidates you’d like to have.
So here’s to four more years of President George Walker Bush. Here’s to Social Security reform and a frustrating lack of press conferences. Here’s to tax code simplification and four more “Bushisms” calendars. Here’s to finally getting Osama and spending
political capital.
And think of the side benefits. Four more years of George Bush means four more years of Laura Bush, who will eventually learn to control the crush she has on me.
The worst thing for me about four more years of Bush? It’s a toss up between stunning deficit growth and the Bush twins. I pine for the days when you could trust Republicans with money — back when they were the party of fiscal responsibility.
Anyway, here’s to you, Dubya. Don’t disappoint me.

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