Former ambassador comment on U.S. elections
After one month of drama the United States of America has finally decided who its next president will be. Although the decision was ultimately decided by the 5-4 decision of a bitterly divided Supreme Court, the world’s only superpower appears ready to move on, and by inauguration day on January 20th it should be business as usual in Washington. One man who was intimately involved with the U.S. electoral process is no stranger to Belize. Ambassador George Bruno, who represented his country here through 1997, at one time headed the New Hampshire Democratic Party and has been a close associate of Vice President Al Gore since his first run for the nomination in 1988. When things got sticky in Florida Bruno was dispatched to Broward County to help with the counting…and while his efforts went unrewarded, he believes that the system ultimately worked. Bruno spoke to us this afternoon from Washington, D.C.
George Bruno, Via Telephone, Washington, D.C.
?It is a heartbreaker because it was so close and I think he was so right on all the issues. He?s been just a sterling public servant, a man of probity and honesty and hard work. Many of us had hoped that his election would be a continuation of many of the good things that President Clinton and he had started.?
Stewart Krohn
?What is your take on last night?s speeches, both by Mr. Gore and President-elect Bush??
George Bruno
?What we saw was a coming together of the two opposing camps into basically one camp, that as Mr. Bush said, this is no longer two parties fighting with each other, this is now one person working for one nation and one people. And this is so traditional in American politics, where you fight hard, you fight to win and then there?s a winner and a loser and you come together and express unity, and this is what happened.?
Stewart Krohn
How long do you think the honeymoon will last for Mr. Bush??
George Bruno
?I think it will have a lot to do with the initial tone that the Bush administration takes, whether he appoints people of sharp partisan views or whether he is a conciliator like he said he would be during the campaign and reaches across party lines in an attempt to bring people together.?
Stewart Krohn
?Because of the closeness in the electoral vote and the fact that Mr. Gore actually won the popular vote, does President Bush run the risk of having a crippled presidency??
George Bruno
?No, don?t think he does and as he aptly pointed out, one of our greatest presidents, Thomas Jefferson, won the Electoral College by one vote and went on to do extraordinary things for his country.?
Stewart Krohn
?Did the confusion that really took place for the month following the election, does that point up a basic weakness in the U.S. electoral system??
George Bruno
?I think it does. It points out both its weakness and its strength. The weakness highlighting the fact that there are imperfections our voting methods, that each state will have to direct attention to and correct, by the time of the next election. But also, it pointed out strength of our democracy because in the end it was resolved under the rule of law and it was resolved peacefully and the nation goes on with a single leader and people from all sides uniting behind that leader.?
Bruno, who has been working at the Pentagon as a diplomatic advisor to the Army, will shortly be moving back to New Hampshire to resume his career as an attorney in private practice. More public service may be in his future however, as the ambassador has not ruled out a run for the U.S. Congress in 2002. New Hampshire, it should be noted, is a heavily republican state.
