US President George W Bush Wins Second Term with a Popular Majority of 3.5 Million Votes (3%). November 4, 2004

Rural America had little doubt as to whom it wanted to entrust the US Presidency, and George W Bush won resounding margins in the small towns and rural areas of the United States. And while the Electoral College vote was much closer, had John Kerry achieved a majority in the Electoral College he would have been a minority president, and significantly so, with a hostile Republican Congress.

Although a number of reasons will be put forward for Bush's win we would put forward the following as paramount:

    1. John Kerry had declared that he was not opposed to, gay marriages, women's right to chose abortion, or therapeutic stem-cell research. Thereby Kerry branded himself as a small "l" liberal.
      George W Bush had made it clear he is strongly opposed.
 

    2. In times of perceived danger from without, don't change the leadership.

From the viewpoint of US science policy Nature suggests that "current US policies on a range of contentious scientific issues are likely to remain unchanged," and refers specifically to the questions of climate change, continued support for a national nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and a federal ban on funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

However, it would not be unreasonable to predict that Bush will see his popular majority to be a mandate to move more to the "Christian right" in his second term, and the fact that he can not seek re-election for a third term (it is prohibited by the US Constitution) will further reduce the constraints on how he executes the presidency.

If that be the case, expect an even greater politicisation of science than perpetrated in Bush's first term as regards the manipulation of review reports and the choosing of individuals to sit on scientific panels.

Nota bene: (November 8, 2004) The item above elicited the email below which we reprint with the writer's permission.

Greetings Dr Reisner,

Please be careful with your use of language. When you say:

"John Kerry had declared that he was not opposed to, gay marriages, women's right to chose abortion, or therapeutic stem-cell research. Thereby Kerry branded himself as a small 'l' liberal," you are branding  yourself  as a small l-liberal.

The correct phrasing should be: "John Kerry had declared that he was not opposed to, gay marriages, abortion, or therapeutic embryonic stem-cell research. Thereby Kerry branded himself as a small "l" liberal."

You ought to be careful about alienating scientists who are in tune with the looming socially conservative Zeitgeist, we care just as much about the  rot in higher education and are more likely to have an influence on policy...

Just a minor quibble, keep up the good work with the Funneled Web!

Best regards,

         Chris

Dr Chris Fellows
Lecturer in Chemistry
School of Biological, Biomedical, and Molecular Sciences
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351
Australia