The speaker reflects on the election as a rare moment of unified voter sentiment and a strong "no" from the electorate, and welcomes Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as Secretary of Defense, hoping a new Congress and defense secretary can bring fresh ideas and restore global partnerships.
Alright, so I don't usually get all political, but two quick things about the election and the president's press conference this afternoon. First of all, let me just ask you a question. Americans— sorry, non-Americans, hang on, give us a second here. You can watch and listen if you like, and please chime in, but mostly Americans. Let me ask you this: have you ever seen such a sense of clear communication by the electorate as there was yesterday? Those of us who are older have seen this before, but I think it's been a while since we've seen anything quite this clear that said, "Uh-uh, nope, not happening, not going well." Secondly, today's announcement by the president that he had accepted Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's resignation, I think, is also one of those moments that we're going to see greeted by a tremendous sense of relief. Here's a man who clearly doing what he thought was right, doing what he thought was best, had put himself into a position about that, that was opposed by practically any thinking American. Um, not because, you know, he wasn't trying to do the right thing, but he had overstayed his ability to be effective, and he had to go, and so he's gone. So, uh, two really clear moments for our country now. One, to see whether or not the new Congress can do something, maybe to set out on a direction that has a little more unity to it. And secondly, to see if the new Secretary of Defense can bring some fresh ideas and maybe some new partners globally into the current war situation. So I couldn't, I just couldn't not quickly comment on those things because it's a big deal here in the United States. So thanks, bye.
