WASHINGTON -- President Bush won four more years in the WhiteHouse on Wednesday and pledged to ''fight this war on terror withevery resource of our national power.'' John Kerry conceded defeatrather than challenge the vote count in make-or-break Ohio.
''I will need your support and I will work to earn it,'' thepresident said in an appeal to the 55 million Americans who votedfor his Democratic rival. ''We are entering a season of hope,'' hesaid.
The president spoke before thousands of cheering supporters lessthan an hour after his vanquished opponent ended a campaign thatbrought him achingly close to victory. ''We cannot win thiselection,'' Kerry said in a farewell speech.
The re-election triumph gave the president a new term to pursuethe war in Iraq and a conservative, tax-cutting agenda at home --and probably the chance to name one or more justices to an agingSupreme Court.
He will preside alongside expanded Republican majorities inCongress. The GOP gained four Senate seats and bolstered itsmajority in the House by at least two.
Vice President Dick Cheney told the Republican victory rallythat the results of Tuesday's elections translated into a mandatefor the president's policies.
Bush sketched only the barest outline of a second term agenda,talking of reforming an ''outdated tax code,'' overhauling SocialSecurity and upholding the ''deepest values of family andfaith.''
The candidates' public appearances signaled the end of acampaign waged over the anti-terror war and the economy.
Hours earlier, Kerry had telephoned Bush with a privateconcession. Aides to both men stressed they had agreed on a need toheal the nation after a long and frequently bitter campaign.
Ohio's 20 electoral votes gave Bush 274 in the Associated Presscount, four more than the 270 needed for victory. Kerry had 252electoral votes, with Iowa (7) and New Mexico (5) unsettled.
Bush was winning 51 percent of the popular vote to 48 percentfor his rival. He led by more than 3 million ballots.
Officials in both camps described the telephone conversationbetween two campaign warriors.
A Democratic source said Bush called Kerry a worthy, tough andhonorable opponent. Kerry told Bush the country was too divided,and Bush agreed, the source said.
Yet Kerry's public remarks contained an element of challenge tothe Republican president. ''America is in need of unity and longingfor a larger measure of compassion,'' he said. ''I hope PresidentBush will advance those values in the coming years.''
Kerry placed his call after weighing unattractive optionsovernight. With Bush holding fast to a six-figure lead in Ohio,Kerry could give up or trigger a struggle that would have stirredmemories of the bitter recount in Florida that propelled Bush tothe White House in 2000.
The day's events provided the last measure of drama in acampaign full of it. While Bush remains in the White House, Kerryreturns to the Senate, part of a shrunken Democratic minority.
Running mate John Edwards, who gave up his North Carolina Senateseat rather than seek a new term, instantly becomes a leadingcontender for the party's presidential nomination in 2008.
Kerry conceded hours after White House chief of staff Andy Carddeclared Bush the winner and White House aides said the presidentwas giving Kerry time to consider his next step.
One senior Democrat familiar with the discussions in Boston saidEdwards had suggested they shouldn't concede. Advisers said thecampaign wanted one last look for uncounted ballots that mightclose the 136,000-vote advantage Bush held in Ohio.
An Associated Press survey of the state's 88 counties foundthere were about 150,000 uncounted provisional ballots and anunspecified number of absentee votes still to be counted.
Ohio aside, New Mexico and Iowa remained too close to call in arace for the White House framed by a worldwide war against terrorand economic worries at home.
But those two states were for the record -- Ohio alone had theelectoral votes to swing the election to the man in the White Houseor his Democratic challenger. A GOP legal and political team wasdispatched overnight to Ohio in case Kerry made a fight of it.
Republicans already were celebrating election gains in Congress.They picked up four seats in the Senate, and they drove Democraticleader Tom Daschle from office.
That will be the state of play on Capitol Hill for the next twoyears, with the chance of a Supreme Court nomination fight loomingalong with legislative battles.
Republicans also reinforced their majority in the House.
Glitches galore cropped up in overwhelmed polling places asAmericans voted in high numbers, fired up by unprecedentedregistration drives, the excruciatingly close contest and the sensethat these were unusually consequential times.
''The mood of the voter in this election is different than anyelection I've ever seen,'' Sangamon County, Ill., clerk JosephAiello said. ''There's more passion. They seem to be veryemotional. They're asking lots of questions, double-checkingthings.''
The country exposed its rifts on matters of great import inTuesday's voting. Exit polls found the electorate split down themiddle or very close to it on whether the nation is moving in theright direction, on what to do in Iraq, on whom they trust withtheir security.
Bush built a solid foundation by hanging on to almost all thebattleground states he got last time. Facing the cruel arithmeticof attrition, Kerry needed to do more than go one state better thanAl Gore four years ago; redistricting since then had left those2000 Democratic prizes 10 electoral votes short of the total neededto win the presidency.
Florida fell to Bush again, close but no argument about it.
Bush's relentless effort to wrest Pennsylvania from theDemocratic column fell short. He had visited the state 44 times,more than any other. Kerry picked up New Hampshire in perhaps theelection's only turnover.
In Ohio, Kerry won among young adults, but lost in every otherage group. One-fourth of Ohio voters identified themselves asborn-again Christians and they backed Bush by a 3-to-1 margin.
A sideline issue in the national presidential campaign, gaycivil unions may have been a sleeper that hurt Kerry -- whostrongly supports that right -- in Ohio and elsewhere. Ohioansexpanded their law banning gay marriage, already considered thetoughest in the country, with an even broader constitutionalamendment against civil unions.
In all, voters in 11 states approved constitutional amendmentslimiting marriage to one man and one woman.
In Florida, Kerry again won only among voters under age 30. Sixin 10 voters said Florida's economy was in good shape, and theyvoted heavily for Bush. Voters also gave the edge to Bush'shandling of terrorism.
In Senate contests, Rep. John Thune's victory over Daschlerepresented the first defeat of a Senate party leader in are-election race in more than a half century.
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