EDITORIALS; Immensely Talented Candidate Plus Vigorous Grassroots Support =; A Second Term for Bush.(second reelection of Georg Bush - observations)(Editorial)

"I think if Kerry were to win this in a - - in a tight race, I think there'd be an effort to mount a coup, quite frankly... . I mean that the right wing is not going to accept it."

PBS's Bill Moyers, election night

"The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies."

Garry Wills, New York Times, November 4

"W.'s presidency rushes backward, stifling possibilities, stirring intolerance, confusing church with state, blowing off the world, replacing science with religion, and facts with faith. We're entering another dark age.... Instead of leading America to an exciting new reality, the Bushies cocoon in a scary, paranoid, regressive reality."

Maureen Dowd, New York Times, November 7

I will not belabor the obvious. Having worked themselves into a frenzy, and having persuaded themselves that the election was rightfully theirs, the only plausible explanation among Democrats for President Bush's re-election is that "W" represents the triumph of the worst strains in American politics.