Posted on 11/04/2004 7:12:55 PM PST by quidnunc
Tony Blair did not stay up to hear which way Ohio had finally voted, in the most passionately contested US election for decades, which has dominated news for months and brought the world’s diplomacy to a halt.
“You won’t believe it but it’s true,” said Mr Blair, revealing that he went to bed at 10.30pm on Tuesday, well before the polls closed. As he went to sleep, he thought, from exit polls, that John Kerry had won. But he got up at 5.30am to find that George W. Bush was almost certainly back in the White House.
The Prime Minister gave his first interview since the US election result to The Times yesterday morning. We talked to him in his study in 10 Downing Street for an hour between the end of the weekly Cabinet meeting and his departure for a European summit in Brussels. He declined to say whether he was pleased with the election result. “I always made clear throughout that I would remain neutral and that is the way it is going to stay,” he said.
“I have read that one group of people said I was privately hoping for a Kerry victory, and from another lot of people that I was privately hoping for a Bush victory. Nobody knows. I have not discussed it.”
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
European leaders must emerge from their “state of denial” and wake up to the fact that they will be dealing with President Bush for the next four years, Tony Blair says today.
In an appeal to America and the countries that opposed the war in Iraq to come together, the Prime Minister tells The Times: “The election has happened. America has spoken. The rest of the world should listen.” He adds: “It is important that America listens to the rest of the world too. But the fact is that President Bush is there for four years. He is there because the American people have chosen to elect him.” Without naming his targets, Mr Blair says:
“Some people are in a sort of state of denial.” He predicts they will soon be in a “more receptive mood”.
Mr Blair spoke to The Times before travelling to Brussels for a European summit, where he expected the first discussions last night to be about the re-election of Mr Bush and an agenda on which they could move forward together. He makes plain that he will take his role as a bridge between the two continents even more seriously than before, saying Britain is “uniquely placed” because of its “immensely strong” alliance with America to mark out the common ground for agreement.
The Middle East peace process, the Iraqi elections, Iran, Afghanistan and even climate change will be the key areas where progress must be made, he says.
And he discloses that in a conversation with Mr Bush last Saturday — three days before the US election — the President left him with the impression that he intended to use the “space and energy” that a second term gave him to develop an agenda of unifying Europe and America.
-snip-
(Philip Webster and Peter Riddell in The Times, November 5, 2004)
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This is a test of the tagline system, I repeat this is a test of the tagline system you will soon be returned to your regular programming.
Now that the election is over I need to change my tagline from
"Actually i voted for John Kerry before I voted against him." to something new
Forget about Arnold, ammend the constitution for Tony.
Saw my new tagline the other day. Whatcha think? Think it'll catch on?
how does one put in a tag line? i've been looking but can't figure out how to do so on this forum :/
Yeah, sure. We'll keep you posted.
you put the tagline in by typing in the space under the "your reply" box...
I'm testing this one...
When you post a reply to a post on a thread there is a line just under the text box named "Tagline."
Type your cute little saying there. :-)
TAGLINE SUGGESTIONS:
2005 - The Conservative Moment
Spending Political Capital, One Post at a Time
Wictory
Need some wood?
Cut Government Spending - Fire Daschle's Staff!
Liberate Iraq - http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com
one Dick and one Bush ....
hmmm, but there are two Bushes .... and two Johnsons.
Did God intend *that*?
I can see you've turned into a real FReeper. You're talking to yourself.
Tony Blair, in spite of being a liberal, has been a good friend to us during this whole WOT mess. I saw a small video clip of him the other day. He looked pretty rough, and has added quite a few more gray hairs. He's paid a price for helping to stand up for what's right. Thank God for Blair, the Poles, the Aussies, and the rest. We're not alone.
I honestly think that Tony Blair was happier fighting alongside clinton than alongside Bush. But he did join the fight.
I think his basic motivation is that he put patriotism above self-interest. The U.K. needs to preserve it's "Special Relationship" with the U.S. above almost every other consideration. It's the only counterbalance they have to the Euros and the other dangers out there in the world.
Chirac and Schroeder don't understand that, and as a result they have seriously compromised the security of their respective countries for a long time to come.
Well duh. That would be 5:30pm EST. He could get up 7 hours later and it was still only a little past midnight here, it was at that time undetermined whether GWB had won. What did Blair miss besides exit poll agony?
It was easy to be on clinton's side. He might be the most popular Fraud in history. Not so easy to be on Dubya's side.
"Forget about Arnold, ammend the constitution for Tony."
Or maybe Margaret Thatcher?
Her health might hold a little longer...
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