WASHINGTON, Nov 8: The Republican defeat in the US mid-term elections will force major changes on President George Bush, particularly in Iraq, US media said on Wednesday.
But newspaper commentators said the Democratic triumph in the House of Representatives would also force the opposition party to show it can compromise to prove government can keep working for the final two years of Mr Bush's term.
Nearly every major newspaper called the results from Tuesday's election a major blow for the Bush administration.
“The era of one-party Republican rule in Washington ended with a crash in yesterday's midterm elections, putting a proudly unyielding president on notice that the voters want change, especially on the war in Iraq,” said a Washington Post analysis.The Post said Mr Bush now had little room for manoeuvre and that the election had shown the limits of Bush's focus on his conservative base, a policy perfected by the president and his main political advisor, Karl Rove.
“Most critically, perhaps, Republicans lost the political centre on the Iraq war, according to national exit polls. Voters who identified themselves as independents broke strongly for the Democrats, the exit polls showed, as did those who described themselves as moderates.”
The New York Times said: “The political pendulum in American politics swung away from the right yesterday, putting an end to the 12-year Republican Revolution on Capitol Hill and delivering a sharp rebuke of President Bush and the Iraq war.”
The Democrats' return to power in at least one house and gains in the other mean Bush will almost certainly face powerful pressure to reassess his Iraq policy -- not just from Democrats but from within his own party. Even many Republicans hanging on last night emerged from a bruising election restive and looking for a fresh direction.” The Times added however: “The collapse of one-party rule in Washington will transform Bush's final two years in office and challenge Democrats to make the leap from angry opposition to partners in power.”
The Post said Democratic leaders have “already indicated that they will not cut off financing for the war; in many ways, their greatest power will be their ability to investigate, hold hearings and provide the oversight that they asserted was so lacking in recent years.”
The Wall Street Journal highlighted how the Democrats celebrated as the military prepared a new emergency-funding request for 49.2 billion dollars more to pay for overseas operations for the remainder of this fiscal year.
“The juxtaposition illustrates the new political reality in Washington, a challenge both for newly powerful Democrats and the Republican president: With the Democrats poised to take control of the House in the next Congress, each will be forced to deal with each other if the government is to function over the next two years.”
The business daily said that Democrats were aware that, even weakened, the Republicans could still filibuster proposed legislation in the Senate and Bush could use his presidential veto.—AFP
