WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (AFP) - Reelected amid growing fears of terrorism and despite dissatisfaction on Iraq, US President George W. Bush now faces the task of delivering on his pledge to protect against a repeat of the September 11 attacks, analysts said Wednesday.
"The war on terrorism was the election," said Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, citing exit polls that showed 85 percent of those who voted for Bush were motivated by terrorism and strength of leadership.
"Any election is a referendum on the party in power, and indeed the majority of Americans judge the record of the party in power.... including this president's success in keeping America safe from terrorism over the last three years," said Allan Lichtman, presidential historian at Washington's American University.
Bush, 58, was smiling broadly Wednesday, no doubt content in having averted the fate of his father, who 12 years earlier failed in his own bid for a second White House term in hauntingly similar circumstances.
But the closeness of Bush's victory over Democratic challenger John Kerry underscored the degree to which the country remains sharply divided, in spite of the success of his Republican Party in bolstering its majority in both houses of Congress.
Bush still remains far from the two-thirds majority he will need in the Senate to confirm his nominees to fill the vacancies on the US Supreme Court and the federal bench that are expected to arise during his second term.
For Bush, reelection gives an endorsement to his March 2003 invasion of Iraq against the tide of world opinion, a decision attacked relentlessly by Kerry throughout the long campaign.
Voters apparently also stepped around Kerry's attacks on Bush for his failure to capture Osama bin Laden, whose Al-Qaeda network was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed some 3,000 Americans, choosing not to change presidents while the Iraq war rages on.
The Civil War-era president Abraham Lincoln, noted Lichtman, asked: "In the midst of a war, do we really want to swap horses mid-stream?"
"There was no good reason in the record for the American people to switch, and Kerry didn't inspire them with his grand vision for the nation," said Lichtman.
"The American people ratified the record of the Bush administration, particularly the ability of the president to keep America safe from attack since 9/11."
The shock appearance of a video last Friday, four days before the election, showing bin Laden warning Americans that their security was in their own hands, not in those of either Bush or Kerry, appeared to drive home with voters the reality of the terrorist threat.
Internationally, the Bush victory doused hopes in several capitals for a US administration more welcoming of other nations' views.
With the exception of prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain, Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and John Howard of Australia, and to a lesser degree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the leaders of virtually all major nations were rooting for Kerry.
One of the first tasks facing Bush will be the smooth conduct of the elections in Iraq that are scheduled for January.
Kerry had repeatedly asserted during the campaign that he would be able to rally international support on Iraq.
Bush already knows that support will not be forthcoming.
11/03/2004 19:09 GMT - AFP