President wins a tight race, now must govern for all

President Bush clearly won the popular vote Tuesday, and barring a lopsided count of provisional ballots in Ohio that is statistically improbable, he will win the count in the Electoral College.
It will be an impressive victory in a nation that is almost equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, but which clearly continues a turn toward the GOP that can be traced back a decade. It was 1994, in the first off-year election of the Clinton administration, when the Contract with America campaign gave control of the House of Representatives to Republicans.
Yesterday, President Bush almost certainly won re-election and the Republicans gained seats in both the Senate and the House. Republicans are entitled to enjoy their victory, but should not overstate the margin of their victory or read into the results a hunger by the American people for radical change.
We are a nation at war, and voters are disinclined to change leaders in times such as these. President Bush ran on a platform that he could best keep America secure, and polls showed that that issue resonated with the voters more than any other.
President Bush must now make good on that promise of security, and to do that he must bring peace and free elections to Iraq. As a practical matter, that will require the president to seek to build a stronger international alliance for U.S. initiatives in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.
The United States cannot bear indefinitely 80 or 90 percent of the cost -- in both casualties and treasury -- of the war in Iraq.
Domestic front
The president must turn his attention, as well, to domestic issues.
As we said Sunday, Medicare and Social Security must be protected. The cost of health care must be reined in. The deficit must be reduced.
Both President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry campaigned on platforms that promised virtually everything. It is now incumbent on President Bush to spell out how he intends to prosecute the war, protect the homeland, continue tax relief, address trade inequities, create jobs and balance the budget.
Even with Republican control of Congress, the president is going to have to reach across the aisle if he is to avoid gridlock. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who ran against candidate Bush in 2000 and supported him in 2004, said yesterday that he expects the president to work with Republicans and Democrats in order to build his legacy during a second campaign.
That is good advice.
If the president chooses, instead, to appeal to his most conservative base and to pursue an agenda that dismisses the importance of the support he received from moderate and cross-over voters, his legacy will be that of a divider, not a uniter.
And if that were the case, everyone will have lost yesterday.