This land belongs to Bush

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

For the hardcore Republican faithful gathered in Washington, the moment of euphoric confirmation came at 12.41am local time.

In the bowels of the Ronald Reagan Building where the party was holding what for months had been termed its "victory rally", Fox News - being shown on huge monitors - announced that it was calling the state of Ohio for the President.

Instantly, the already noisy and ebullient party turned into an extraordinary, roaring mass of people cheering, kissing, hugging and punching the air.

Having secured Florida an hour earlier, they knew this was the development that would secure Bush another four years in the White House.

One young couple posed with wide smiles as they had their photograph taken against the backdrop of the television screen that was flashing up the magical numbers that had just come in from Ohio.

"He has been a great leader," said Carolyn Damschen, 21, an intern at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think-tank, as people around her screamed and yelled with glee .

Her fiance, Brian Wise, 25, was equally thrilled by the prospect of another four years of a Bush Administration.

"This just ensures we are going in the right direction and that we're recovering from the September 11 attacks," he said.

The joy was not flowing so vociferously earlier in the night.

Early exit polls picked up by the major television networks and the internet suggested that the Democrats were gathering momentum in the key battleground states of Florida and Ohio and that they might be getting their noses ahead of the Republicans.

Could it be that George Bush might be forced to come to the party and give a concession speech rather than the victory delivery they were all so eagerly awaiting?

But gradually the numbers on the big screens started getting better. The total of projected Electoral College votes in Bush's column grew steadily as the map of the country increasingly turned red.

What Bush was thinking of all this was not clear.

During the evening, a piece of pooled video film showed the President sitting at the White House with members of his family, including his father, presumably watching the same bank of television screens that everybody else was watching. "I'm very upbeat. I believe I am going to win," said a grinning Bush. "It's going to be an exciting evening."

In the ballroom, the crowd was getting was more country music from a series of bands - and more cheering numbers.

Encouraged by the noisy crowd, the band launched into the old Woody Guthrie song This Land is Your Land.

One can only imagine what Guthrie, a lifelong socialist and trade union supporter, would have thought of his song of opportunity and egalitarianism being played to a crowd of roaring neo-conservatives.

"This land is your land, This land is my land, From California, To the New York Island, From the redwood forest, To the Gulf stream waters, This land was made for you and me."

But as the crowd sang along, one realised that from the perspective of the people packed into the sweaty ballroom, the words of the song had come true.

From where they were looking this land really did belong to them.

- INDEPENDENT