TEMPORARY SETBACK

It was with the following bulletin, shortly after 11 a.m., that the campaign came to a close:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush won a second term from a divided and anxious nation, his promise of steady, strong wartime leadership trumping John Kerry's fresh-start approach to Iraq and joblessness. After a long, tense night of vote counting, the Democrat called Bush to concede Ohio and the presidency to Bush, The Associated Press has learned.

Yes, it's surprising to see that a failed administration can invent reasons to go to war, then run on a campaign as a wartime president; preside over the first net job loss since Hoover, then claim he's boosting the economy, etc.

Don't be upset.

There is no clear mandate for the misleader, who won because he divided the nation and appealed to our worst instincts with fear-mongering, race-baiting and class divisions. This is not — I repeat, not — the vision our Founding Fathers held.

Do not despair.

We still have our jobs, we still have our families and our health, and we still have the ability to influence the world around us. It won't always be easy or encouraging, but it will be necessary to speak up for injustice, now more than ever. We will have to work to ensure that the ideals that form the foundation for the United States of America — religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble — are protected and exercised wherever, whenever possible.

America is larger than any one man.