After a divisive campaign, the vitriol is still flying

By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

As George W. Bush claimed re-election Wednesday afternoon, there were hints of his early pre-presidential visits five years ago: He seemed like a leader walking humbly before the Lord, rather than a guy on a mission from God.

Absent was the ominous now-we'll-get-them flavor -- seen in the landslides of Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Franklin D. Roosevelt -- and instead a pledge to "serve all Americans" and work to "earn" the support of John Kerry voters.

An hour later, however, this scribe turned on his office computer and began scanning the e-mail response to Wednesday's stay-involved, don't-get-cynical column directed at progressives distraught at Kerry's loss.

The brickbats from Bush backers on the right were a reverse of Abraham Lincoln's famous conciliation call as the Civil War was waning.

At the end of a divisive campaign, most of the Bushies seemed to be of the mood of malice toward all and charity toward none.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/198379_joel05.html

He was smirking from ear to ear. The only people worse than * are his supporters.

Where the "will of the people" was invoked.

He was kind of an annoying "moderate" before.