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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>The world exhales</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline>Common Sense</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>John Maxwell
Sunday, November 12, 2006
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>LIKE any smart bully, he caved when faced by an opponent not afraid of him. And, although he had only days before derided Nancy Pelosi as a freaky left-winger from San Francisco, on Wednesday he was perfectly polite and prepared to address her as Madame Speaker, pledging to work with her and acknowledging that she, like him, had the best interests of the American people at heart.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=157 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>John Maxwell</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>The world breathed a huge sigh of relief on Tuesday night when it became clear that the American people were a lot smarter than their president and his advisers. And I imagine that most people round the world breathed another huge sigh of collective satisfaction on Wednesday when the intelligence flashed through the ether that the Generalissimo, Donald Rumsfeld, Lord of Fallujah and Baron of Babylon, had fallen on his sword. His ceremonial hara kiri came just a week after Mr Bush had arrogantly dismissed questioning journalists with the assurance that Mr Rumsfeld would, like the Rock of Gibraltar, always be there.<P class=StoryText align=justify>As they say - " never say never" again.
Mr Bush says he doesn't read the newspapers - which is probably good for his blood pressure; because the comment from the United States and the rest of the world is almost uniformly welcoming of the catastrophic defeats suffered in Tuesday's elections by the Republican party.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Most of the world, accustomed to substantial parliamentary majorities when one party gets nearly 60% of the vote, must have wondered why it was so difficult for the Democrats to take charge of the parliament of the United States. They do not understand that the US electoral system is largely a product of the 18th century, antedating the British Reform Act of 1834 by half a century, and designed to guarantee a stifling stability to the affairs of the United States.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Men who had created a revolution to gain their own freedom tried to ensure that their descendants were as hobbled by 18th century mores as they had been by the British. Although the first casualty of the American Revolution was a black soldier, Crispus Attucks, it took another 100 years to abolish slavery and another century after that, for all Americans to have the right to vote.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=120 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>BUSH.Unfortunately has never understood that 'terrorism' is the weapon of the desperate - of those who believe that they cannot get justice except by taking revenge on their oppressors or their surrogates, innocent or otherwise </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>And although a great many Haitians, including Henri Christophe, fought for American freedom, Thomas Jefferson and his successors, including George Bush, are still not reconciled to the idea of a free black sovereign nation. Nor do they have any sense of obligation to those from whom they extracted so much tribute and treasure over so many centuries.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Which is why, for instance, the electora
<SPAN class=Subheadline>Common Sense</SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>John Maxwell
Sunday, November 12, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>LIKE any smart bully, he caved when faced by an opponent not afraid of him. And, although he had only days before derided Nancy Pelosi as a freaky left-winger from San Francisco, on Wednesday he was perfectly polite and prepared to address her as Madame Speaker, pledging to work with her and acknowledging that she, like him, had the best interests of the American people at heart.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=157 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>John Maxwell</SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>The world breathed a huge sigh of relief on Tuesday night when it became clear that the American people were a lot smarter than their president and his advisers. And I imagine that most people round the world breathed another huge sigh of collective satisfaction on Wednesday when the intelligence flashed through the ether that the Generalissimo, Donald Rumsfeld, Lord of Fallujah and Baron of Babylon, had fallen on his sword. His ceremonial hara kiri came just a week after Mr Bush had arrogantly dismissed questioning journalists with the assurance that Mr Rumsfeld would, like the Rock of Gibraltar, always be there.<P class=StoryText align=justify>As they say - " never say never" again. Mr Bush says he doesn't read the newspapers - which is probably good for his blood pressure; because the comment from the United States and the rest of the world is almost uniformly welcoming of the catastrophic defeats suffered in Tuesday's elections by the Republican party.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Most of the world, accustomed to substantial parliamentary majorities when one party gets nearly 60% of the vote, must have wondered why it was so difficult for the Democrats to take charge of the parliament of the United States. They do not understand that the US electoral system is largely a product of the 18th century, antedating the British Reform Act of 1834 by half a century, and designed to guarantee a stifling stability to the affairs of the United States.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Men who had created a revolution to gain their own freedom tried to ensure that their descendants were as hobbled by 18th century mores as they had been by the British. Although the first casualty of the American Revolution was a black soldier, Crispus Attucks, it took another 100 years to abolish slavery and another century after that, for all Americans to have the right to vote.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=120 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>BUSH.Unfortunately has never understood that 'terrorism' is the weapon of the desperate - of those who believe that they cannot get justice except by taking revenge on their oppressors or their surrogates, innocent or otherwise </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>And although a great many Haitians, including Henri Christophe, fought for American freedom, Thomas Jefferson and his successors, including George Bush, are still not reconciled to the idea of a free black sovereign nation. Nor do they have any sense of obligation to those from whom they extracted so much tribute and treasure over so many centuries.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Which is why, for instance, the electora