Two weeks after the presidential election, the United States actually knows who its president will be for the next four years. This is a clear advantage to the 2000 election. If this year had been like four years ago, we would still be waiting on news about legal maneuvering and all the various types of chads on ballots.

Instead of all that fuss we have George Bush preparing his agenda and staff for the next four years.

While a fair portion of Americans don’t embrace Bush’s policies they are at least willing to respect them. In Europe, people are willing to completely dismiss Bush. This is why the presidential race was as closely observed, if not more, by those who don’t even claim citizenship in this country.

In this country, the results came to an amicable end. Bush unquestionably won in both the electoral college and the popular vote. Kerry avoided the election night follies of Al Gore and conceited defeat with dignity and a call to let the healing begin. The American people seemed satisfied that the election was fair, despite if their candidate did or didn’t win.

The European media reacted in a slightly different manner.

European media is more willing to let its biases be known than the American media. American news organizations strive for objectivity, where in Europe each news organization has its own following that expects a certain slant to the news.

So when all the votes in America were tallied and Bush was declared the winner, European newspapers had some interesting headlines the following day.

The most interesting comes from the Daily Mirror, a London-based paper known for its sensationalized coverage. Its front page on November 4 read like this; “Doh! 4 more years of Dubya: How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” It also called the election a “disaster.”

How can anyone be offended by that? I know when I wake up in the morning I love to have someone an ocean away mock my intelligence on something that is none of their business.

How can a newspaper in England know what’s best for America? Who are they to call more than 59 million people dumb? What would have happened if an American newspaper had done the same when England was electing a prime minister?

These are all questions I would like to have answered. I know the Daily Mirror is just trying to sell its paper with this incendiary headline, but what good does it do?

It certainly doesn’t start the healing process like John Kerry suggested in what was by far the best speech of his campaign.

A person posting on a Daily Mirror message board as Anna Stroud from Ann Arbor, Mich. added a fair point. “I just wanted to say that although 59,000,000 Americans voted for Dubya….just realize that at the same time over 58,000,000 people here also voted for someone who seemed to be a better option for our nation,” the posting states. “Don’t write the whole country off because of some dumb religious zealots. We’re not all that stupid.”

Anna Stroud raises a good point about the 58 million that voted for Kerry, but casting everyone who voted for Bush as a “dumb religious zealot” is just as ignorant as the Mirror’s headline.

Most Kerry backers have handled the defeat with respect. But the ones who wish to ignore his noble call for healing can continue to call Bush backers stupid, and sound even dumber.