By Michael Barone
The 51 percent nation

Love is stronger than hate. That is the lesson of the 2004 election results.
Millions of Democrats and leftists have been seething with hatred for George W.
Bush for years, and many of them lined up before the polls opened to cast their
votes against him--one reason, apparently, that the exit poll results turned
out to favor Democrats more than did the actual results. But Republicans full
of love, or at least affection, for George W. Bush turned out steadily later in
the day or sent in their ballots days before. They have watched the "old media"
--the New York Times, the broadcast networks CBS, ABC, and NBC--beat up on Bush
for the past year, and they have listened to the sneers and slurs directed at
him by coastal elites for a long time. Now they had their chance to speak. They
did so loudly and clearly, giving Bush the first popular-vote majority for
president in 16 years.