By Colby Itkowitz

WASHINGTON- A row of fold-up chairs faced the podium where President George Bush should have stood Tuesday night and conceded the presidency to Sen. John Kerry. Each chair was labeled reserved-New York Times, White House Press Corp, Washington Post and then a little left of center “Colby Itkowitz Newsday.” Surrounded by blinding video camera lights, reporters scribbling in small notebooks and Bush volunteers singing gleefully to the country western band playing on stage, I thought my job-covering the Bush Victory Party-would be a simple one. I’d watch the numbers come in on the huge projection screen, take note of the increasing depression that would sweep through the room, quote a few crying Republicans and then head happily home ready to wake up to a new, freed America.

But as the cheers of “four more years” grew piercingly louder, the map bled red and RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie continued to saunter onstage with good news for the GOPs, I knew in my heart that it was over. So I slouched in my special up-front chair and waited for Kerry to concede. Around 3:30 a.m. I was reminded of 2000 and the Florida debacle-hailing a cab, I went to bed.

I returned to the Ronald Reagan building yesterday afternoon wearing my reporter façade of bipartisanship. Greeted by a sea of Bush/Cheney signs, red, white and blue pom-poms and glowing Republican optimism, I tried to ignore the dark cloud of impending doom that’s been following me like in one of those old Looney Tunes cartoons. I tried to stop the tears that were brimming in my eyes when Kerry’s face filled the screen and he offered a personal hug to each of his supporters. And then I stood on my special chair and watched the President of the United States-a man I’ve adamantly and vehemently despised for four years-walk onstage to accept another four years of the presidency.

The moment was historic. For as a journalist and as an American, I was in the room with the President when he won re-election. And in any other circumstance, or in any other column, I’d probably describe just how cool it really was and then preach how to keep a straight face as a reporter when covering someone whose mere words make your blood boil. But today I’m taking off the reporter hat and I turn to my fellow Americans and ask, why?

Chief Justice William Rehnquist is dying. In the next four years the President of the United States will appoint at least one if not two or three new Supreme Court judges. Cases like Roe v. Wade that protects a woman’s right to choose will be called into question. Watch closely, America, as your civil liberties slip quickly and quietly away.

In the name of national security, the man with the bullhorn invaded our personal lives with something known as the Patriot Act. Those laws will also be revisited next year and with a strong Republican majority in all three branches of the government chances are they will be made permanent. The check and balance system our forefathers put into place so long ago does not apply for at least the next two years. The Republicans control it all, Bush need not worry about a reelection, and thus they can do whatever they want.

Whatever they want could include pinpointing more Middle Eastern countries as threats and endangering the lives of more American soldiers. When they are unable to triple the duties of reservists they might just go back on their word-the promise of no draft could easily become as infamous as Daddy’s “No new taxes.” They’ll continue cutting taxes for the richest in the country while leaving an entire class of people uneducated, without health care and without jobs. Bush will continue touting about how the economy is getting stronger, but forgets to pay notice to the woman working two jobs at 50 hours a week just to feed her children.

Then there’s the incredible diplomatic ties Bush has made over the past four years making every traveling American a target for terrorism. Osama bin Laden will return with a vengeance. In his video last week he looked healthier, stronger and more confident than ever before. The insurgents in Iraq will not waver. Terror is still a very crucial and real part of our daily existence. And for those that voted for Bush because they believed he was the one to keep us safer just find a mother whose son went overseas and never returned.

So, why did America pick President Bush? Did they buy into the 9/11 leadership propaganda or does the Christian right really have such a stronghold on the American vote? Was it the rich CEOs or the soccer moms turned scared moms searching for a man to protect their children? Did the 20-somethings forget to vote or did Kerry not energize the “base?” Maybe it’s time to swap the West Coast with everything below the Mason Dixon line and then let New England and California merge to secede from the union. Because as John Edwards said and the president reiterated in his speech yesterday, we are in fact two separate and distinct Americas.

I’ll admit I’m a bit scared of what’s to come. The President said yesterday that he wished to reach out to the Kerry supporters and gain their trust. So for the sake of my own sanity, I will give him that chance to deserve my trust. I’ll let him prove that maybe the Bush administration isn’t just a group of radical right-wing nut jobs they pretended to be in the first term. It will take a lot of convincing, but let him give it a shot.

And then hopefully in 2006 Americans will wise up and elect legislators who will force the President to be accountable for his actions. Hopefully media will resume the job as the watchdog for society and in the meantime a strong, possibly female, Democratic contender will have moved up the ranks in time for a run in 2008.