What was the primary focus of the elections? The war on terror and Iraq. While it could most certainly be the case that a candidate other than Kerry may very well have beaten Bush, it did not happen. When you are elected President, and while close it was a 3 million vote margin, what are you to say? I was reelected so i will not continue with my agenda? I won't continue doing what I think is best?

The issues with the handling of Iraq and terror were clearly the primary issues of the campaign. Whether or not the exact strategy of the administration was endorsed I doubt. However, it is clear that the majority of the American people trusted him to continue with it. This is why he won. I see nothing out of line with those statements.

He can't win- if he stands for what he has been doing he is denounced as arrogant. If he were to change course and flip on everything he would be denounced for that as well- fact is, those who chose to hate him, will hate him no matter what.

I just hate the fact that he says the American people support him in this war because they reelected him. Not true.

Slightly less then half the country did NOT vote for him. Slightly less then half do NOT support the war? That's a LOT of people!

You can't make the assumption that everyone who voted against him did so because of the war- it is entirely possible (and more likely than not) that many voted for someone else for a different reason- and vice versa, you can't assume that everyone who voted for him did so in support of the war. Too much bleed over-

I would say that the reason Bush won the election was not so much that people agree with his handling of the war. It was simply because they didn't like John Kerry.

Bush's approval rating right now is the lowest of any re-elected President in over half a century. The majority of Americans do not believe that Iraq is going well and that approval rating will continue to drop.

His approval ratings just bounced from 47% to 53%....I am not convinced of a downward trend.

Time will tell-

For Mr. Bush to reason that no-one in his administration should be held accountable for the atrocities happening in Iraq is absurd. Moments after the election, everyone was spouting off about how the election was won on "moral issues." So, was it the invasion of Iraq? Moral issues? Social security? Or, possibly, blatant fearmongering on a number of issues?
His arrogance is demonstrated time and time again by his refusal to acknowledge that anything his administration has done might have been done wrong.

Interesting choice of words up there. Not, "there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for their actions", but rather for their mistakes or misjudgements. Sorry, but if mistakes and misjudgements were made in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath, then indeed, someone should be held accountable.

I discovered this site that tracks Bush's approval ratings.

Bet they will bump up even higher right after the Big Day :D

Thanks for the link.