WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush won a second term from a
divided and anxious nation, his promise of steady, strong wartime
leadership trumping John Kerry’s fresh-start approach to Iraq
and joblessness. After a long, tense night of vote counting, the
Democrat called Bush today to concede Ohio and the presidency, The
Associated Press learned.

Kerry ended his quest, concluding one of the most expensive and
bitterly contested races on record, with a call to the president
shortly after 11 a.m. EST, according to two officials familiar with
the conversation.

The victory gave Bush four more years to pursue the war on
terror and a conservative, tax-cutting agenda.

He also will preside over expanded Republican majorities in
Congress.

“Congratulations, Mr. President,” Kerry said in the
conversation described by sources as lasting less than five
minutes. One of the sources was Republican, the other a
Democrat.

The Democratic source said Bush called Kerry a worthy, tough and
honorable opponent. Kerry told Bush the country was too divided,
the source said, and Bush agreed. “We really have to do
something about it,” Kerry said according to the Democratic
official.

Kerry placed his call after weighing unattractive options
overnight. With Bush holding fast to a six-figure lead in
make-or-break Ohio, Kerry could give up or trigger a struggle that
would have stirred memories of the bitter recount in Florida that
propelled Bush to the White House in 2000.

Kerry’s call was the last bit of drama in a campaign full
of it.

He acted, hours after White House chief of staff Andy Card
declared Bush the winner and White House aides said the president
was giving Kerry time to consider his next step.

One senior Democrat familiar with the discussions in Boston said
Kerry’s running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, was
suggesting that he shouldn’t concede.

The official said Edwards, a trial lawyer, wanted to make sure
all options were explored and that Democrats pursued them as
thoroughly as Republicans would if the positions were reversed.

Advisers said the campaign just wanted one last look for
uncounted ballots that might close the 136,000-vote advantage Bush
held in Ohio.

An Associated Press survey of the state’s 88 counties
found there were about 150,000 uncounted provisional ballots and an
unspecified number of absentee votes still to be counted.

Ohio aside, New Mexico and Iowa remained too close to call in a
race for the White House framed by a worldwide war against terror
and economic worries at home.

Those two states were for the record — Ohio alone had the
electoral votes to swing the election to the man in the White House
or his Democratic challenger.

Bush remained at the White House, a GOP legal and political team
dispatched overnight to Ohio in case Kerry made a fight of it.

Republicans already were celebrating election gains in Congress.
They picked up at least three seats in the Senate, and a fourth was
within their grasp, in Alaska. And they drove Democratic leader Tom
Daschle from office.

That will be the state of play on Capitol Hill for the next two
years, with the chance of a Supreme Court nomination fight looming
along with legislative battles.

Republicans also re-enforced their majority in the House.

Glitches galore cropped up in overwhelmed polling places as
Americans voted in high numbers, fired up by unprecedented
registration drives, the excruciatingly close contest and the sense
that these were unusually consequential times.

“The mood of the voter in this election is different than
any election I’ve ever seen,” said Sangamon County,
Ill., clerk Joseph Aiello. “There’s more passion. They
seem to be very emotional. They’re asking lots of questions,
double-checking things.”

The country exposed its rifts on matters of great import in
yesterday’s voting. Exit polls found the electorate split
down the middle or very close to it on whether the nation is moving
in the right direction, on what to do in Iraq, on whom they trust
with their security.

The electoral map today looked much like it did before; the
question mark had moved and little else.

Bush built a solid foundation by hanging on to almost all the
battleground states he got last time. Facing the cruel arithmetic
of attrition, Kerry needed to do more than go one state better than
Al Gore four years ago; redistricting since then had left those
2000 Democratic prizes 10 electoral votes short of the total needed
to win the presidency.

Florida fell to Bush again, close but no argument about it.