WASHINGTON (AFP) - George W. Bush was re-elected US president, winning four more years to press his war on terror after a bitter campaign against Democrat John Kerry that focused on the US role in a post-September 11 world.
Kerry conceded the country`s first presidential contest since the devastating terror attacks three years ago, after holding out for hours in the vain hope he could pull out a miracle win in the pivotal state of Ohio.
Addressing his devastated supporters in Boston, Kerry said he had spoken with the president about the "desperate need" for national unity and he called on Democrats to help heal the divisions caused by an acrimonious White House race.
"We must join in common effort without remorse or recrimination, without anger or rancor," he said. "America is in need of unity and longing for a larger measure of compassion."
His concession produced a relatively smooth denouement to an excruciatingly close contest that gave every sign of ending up like the 2000 debacle that went to the US Supreme Court before Bush was declared the winner.
"The outcome should be decided by voters, not a protracted legal process," Kerry said.
But this year Bush won big, capturing a majority of the popular vote for the first time and spearheading a successful Republican drive to expand the party`s control of both houses of Congress.
Bush, 58, was to speak later Wednesday but his chief of staff Andrew Card appeared before cheering supporters around dawn to proclaim his victory "a strong endorsement of President Bush by his fellow Americans."
The president, after four tumultuous years at the country`s helm, was sure to claim a mandate for his anti-terror drive, controversial military operation in Iraq and a range of domestic policies from tax cuts to limits on stem-cell research.
In his concession speech, Kerry, 60, said that, "Now, more than ever, with our soldiers in harm`s way, we must stand together and succeed in Iraq and win the war on terror."
The Republican`s triumph came after eight months and a billion dollars of hostile campaigning that turned on Iraq and who could better keep the country safe from a repeat of the September 11 onslaught.
Exit polls showed Bush`s strategy of boosting his own leadership credentials as a "war president" bore fruit among the more than 110 million Americans who cast ballots.
Eighty-five percent of those who voted for the president said they did so because of his leadership skills and ability to deal with terrorism, according to the surveys cited in US newspapers.
Bush won the popular vote 51-48 perecent with a 3.5 million vote margin, a sweet reversal of 2000 when he lost the nationwide tally to Democrat Al Gore but took a decisive majority of electoral votes awarded in separate state contests.
The Republicans also scored big in the US Congress, poised to add up to four seats to the 51 they already controlled in the 100-member Senate. Among the prominent Democrats to fall was minority leader Tom Daschle.
In the House of Representatives, Republicans were also set to add at least five seats to the 227 they held in the outgoing 435-member body.
The results were vindication for Bush, who had once been written off as a poltiical lightweight but now stood to put his mark on the White House with a second four-year term.
It also gave him a leg up on his father, former president George H.W. Bush, who lasted only one term. The younger Bush, a born-again Methodist, had sought a mandate to complete what he said was unfinished work after September 11.
The devastating attacks a few months into his term turned Bush into an avenging sheriff, spearheading a "with-me-or-against-me" drive against global terrorism that sent US troops rumbling into Afghanistan and Iraq.
"If America shows any uncertainty or any weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy," he said in his signature line on the campaign trail. "This is not going to happen on my watch."
His high-octane macho served him well in the battle against Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war veteran he managed to paint as a weak-kneed waffler on defense and trump in the polls on the key question of national security.
But Bush will start a new chapter in his tenure at the White House dealing with a nation deeply divided over the Iraq war, which also alienated many US allies abroad, and several other issues.
The result was a crushing blow to Kerry, the Massachusetts senator who started his quest for the presidency nearly two years ago and kept it alive through a series of comebacks.
The campaign was a study in contrasting styles, temperaments and policies of the two candidates and offered a stark choice between competing visions of the country`s world role and posture in an era of global terrorism.
US voters chose to renew the four-year mandate of Bush, a plain-talking politico willing to use pre-emptive military force to protect the country.
They rejected Kerry`s more-nuanced view of the war on terror that relied on intelligence, diplomacy and economic clout as much as sheer firepower.
But for the second straight time, a US presidential election foundered, at least temporarily, on the archaic US system based on 538 electoral votes that are awarded in separate state contests.
The candidates and officials of both parties had been hoping to avoid a replay of the 2000 debacle, when Bush won only after a 36-day legal battle over a recount in Florida. In the end, Bush won the state by 537 votes.
In the end the outcome came down to Ohio and its 20 electors. Two stations called the state for Bush, one said it was to close to call and two others had no judgment.
11/03/2004 - 20:09 GMT - AFP