It's over. Nearly five weeks after U.S. voters went to the polls, Texas Gov. George W. Bush can claim to be the official winner and the 43rd president of the United States. It has been a wrenching time, for the candidates, their parties and the American public. Now, the healing must begin. It will be a long and difficult process, but the U.S. is a resilient country. It will survive this test and may, with patience and determination, emerge even stronger.
Mr. Bush inherits a country divided as never before. He won the presidency by the slimmest of margins. He claimed 271 votes in the Electoral College, one more than the bare minimum required to take office. Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote by a mere three-tenths of a percentage point. The U.S. Senate is divided exactly in half; in the House of Representatives, the Republicans hold a razor-thin margin of five seats out of 435. State governments are just as neatly split.
Of greater concern is the damage that has been done to national institutions during the bruising post-election battle. Both men, their organizations and their parties have been widely perceived as bitterly partisan during this difficult time. In addition, the taint of party politics now laps at the judiciary. Much of the appeal of U.S. democracy has been the perception that the judiciary is independent of other branches of government and could be counted on to rise above the partisan fray.