First glance
It's your average, semi-newsless, post-election day in politics.  But here at NBC, it is anything but an average day.

Tom Brokaw anchors NBC Nightly News tonight for the last time. 

And in a seamless transition worthy of Karl Rove, NBC's Brian Williams begins anchoring Nightly tomorrow night.

Our admiration and affection for the gentleman from South Dakota, and our respect for his masterful coverage and sheer love of American politics, are too immense to convey in words.  So as our parting note, we will simply point this out for our readers:

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Despite a "five-star jury of singers, musicians, producers, industry figures, critics and, of course, songwriters," Rolling Stone failed to include "American Pie" on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Tsk tsk, Rolling Stone.  We know greatness when we see it.  Let's just leave it at that.

En route back to DC from Canada today, the President stops in Halifax, Nova Scotia at 11:15 am to thank residents for helping American citizens temporarily stranded there on September 11.  Bush and Prime Minister Martin make remarks at Pier 21, Canada's immigration museum.  Back at the White House, Bush takes part in the 2004 Nobel Prize awards ceremony at 3:00 pm.

In Ohio today, several watchdoggy-type groups will appeal to the state Supreme Court for a recount.  The Kerry campaign has gotten a bit more active on this front; see below.

Other resignations of note: Tom Ridge leaving the Department of Homeland Security, Kweisi Mfume leaving the NAACP, and Cheryl Jacques stepping down from the nation's leading gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign. 

And for those who were psyched about our mention of college football yesterday, there’s also now a head-coach vacancy at Notre Dame.

O Canada
The Halifax Daily News previewing Bush’s visit there today, says the public won’t have much of an opportunity to see the President, and that the police are hoping for no trouble from protestors.  The Washington Post adds that Bush will thank residents for accepting US aircraft stranded after the 9/11 attacks.

The Ottawa Sun on Bush’s news conference yesterday: “George W. Bush trumpeted a renewed friendship with Canada during his first visit to Ottawa yesterday, but bristled at criticism of his decision to invade Iraq…  ‘I'm the kind of fella who does what I think is right and will continue to do what I think is right,’ he said.”

The New York Times: “President Bush on Tuesday thanked Canadians who waved a welcome to him ‘with all five fingers’ on his first official visit to their country, but he also appeared defensive at a time when he was expected to reach out and try to repair the rift over the war in Iraq.”

The Washington Times puts yesterday's visit in perspective, noting that the "U.S.-Canada relationship was bruised shortly after Mr. Bush sent troops into Iraq in March 2003 to disarm dictator Saddam Hussein.  Prime Minister Jacques (sic) Chretien vehemently - and vocally - opposed the war...  Unlike his predecessor, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has taken a softer line with the United States.  He called Mr. Bush last month to congratulate him on his re-election and to invite him to Canada.  As evidence that relations are warming, Mr. Bush accepted and showed up just three weeks later...  Although Mr. Martin said disagreements are natural with other nations - even neighbors - he avoided uttering even one word of dissent over the Iraq war."

Other countries' elections
The AP reports that “Ukraine's parliament brought down the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich on Wednesday, approving a no-confidence motion as international mediators gathered in the capital to try to bring the spiraling political crisis to a peaceful resolution…  Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma must now appoint a caretaker government, if he is to follow constitutional procedure.  Kuchma, minutes before the vote, announced he supported holding an entirely new presidential election, not just a revote of the disputed second round.

"International support for a rerun of the election also gathered force after a phone conversation between German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said the crisis should be solved without foreign pressure," reports the Washington Times.

Bush II
The New York Times sums up Ridge’s tenure at the Department of Homeland Security.  “His tenure was a success by the most basic of measures - there was no terrorist attack on American soil during that time - and he oversaw broad changes to the way the United States protects itself… Mr. Ridge often had to parry criticism from Democrats that the administration had underfinanced domestic security programs or had not moved quickly enough to address vulnerabilities.”

“Last summer, during the heat of the presidential campaign, some Democrats accused him of politicizing the terrorism threat when he praised Mr. Bush's leadership in announcing a heightened state of alert.  He was sometimes mocked for installing and, in the view of his detractors, mismanaging the color-coded terrorist alert system.”

The Washington Post says that Bush, according to Administration officials, “is seeking to replace Ridge with a tough manager who can set clear lines of authority and untangle overlapping responsibilities in the department…  [A] former White House official, who requested anonymity, said, ‘There's not a lot of accountability there [at the department] now because people can hide behind the fact that the kinks haven't been worked out. . . . With the new secretary, people will be responsible for things, which is what the president wants.’”

The Post adds that possible successors include White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend; White House deputy chief of staff for operations Joseph Hagin; Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for transportation and border security at Homeland Security; former New York Police commissioner Bernard Kerik; former Virginia governor James S. Gilmore III; and Environmental Protection Agency head Michael Leavitt. 

The Washington Times: “Republicans close to the Bush administration say Mr. Kerik - who was in charge of New York City's police at the time of the September 11 attacks - is a top candidate to take over Mr. Ridge's post."

USA Today says Ridge's "successor will face major challenges not yet fully addressed by the 20-month-old department: tightening security at chemical plants and rail lines, protecting against radiological and nuclear attacks, developing new airline passenger and immigrant screening procedures, and defending airlines against portable missiles."

The Bush agenda
The Wall Street Journal’s Harwood writes about the obstacles Bush faces in his attempt to revamp Social Security -- that he doesn’t have a mandate to do anything in particular, because he has never outlined the specifics during the campaign; and that reform might make many members of Congress vulnerable to attack from Democrats.  “When his own second term was at risk, Mr. Bush kept the Social Security details to himself.  Freed of electoral concerns, he now can propose a dramatic revamp of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal monument with an eye toward making history as a conservative man of action.  But Republican lawmakers know that in 23 months they face midterm elections that, if historical patterns hold, won't be kind to the party in power.”

National security
In Ottawa yesterday, Bush said that he wants Congress to pass the September 11 intelligence reforms, the New York Times reports.  Thomas Kean, chairman of the September 11 commission, “said in an interview that he was optimistic that Congress would approve the bill during a brief meeting of lawmakers scheduled for next week, despite the Republican objections in the House. ‘I have never heard of a bill that had the strong support of the president, the vice president, the speaker of the House, the Senate majority leader, the minority leaders of both houses and a large majority of the American people and that didn't pass,’ he said.”

However, the Los Angeles Times says that Rep. James Sensenbrenner will likely stand firm in his opposition to the legislation.  “With a reputation for stubbornness, he is widely expected to hang tough next week, when the 2004 Congress returns for one last try at passing the bill this year.”

“If the bill fails to pass next week - the final lame-duck session is scheduled for Monday and may extend a day - its supporters will have to reintroduce it in the next Congress, which takes office in January.  Intelligence reform advocates say they fear that the legislation will stand little chance of passage in a Congress that is likely to be distracted by Bush's ambitious second-term agenda of domestic policy initiatives.”

2004
The Washington Post reports that Kerry’s campaign asked an Ohio judge yesterday to allow it to join the legal fight over whether one county can decline to participate in the state’s impending recount.  “A pair of third-party presidential candidates, who said that reports of problems at the polls on Election Day are not being addressed, are forcing the Buckeye State to recount its entire presidential vote.  But David A. Yost, a lawyer for Delaware County, just outside Columbus, won a temporary restraining order last week blocking any recount there.”

MSNBC’s David Shuster reports that this move by the Kerry campaign marks the first time it has joined the legal wrangling in Ohio in any formal fashion.  We’d add, however, that Democrats not affiliated with the campaign speculate that this move by Kerry is intended to appease party activists who might be angry that he wasn’t more active in this recount to begin with.   And no one claims to expect any of this to change the outcome in Ohio.

Green Party nominee David Cobb and Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik have put a deposit down for a recount in New Mexico, but the AP reports that it’s “uncertain whether a recount could be completed before New Mexico's presidential electors are scheduled meet Dec. 13 to cast their five votes for Bush."

The Boston Globe offers an in-depth look at the voting problems throughout the country: "In the month since the election, serious instances of voting machine problems or human errors in ballot counts have been documented in at least a dozen states, each involving from scores of ballots to as many as 12,000 votes, as in a North Carolina county.  On Election Day, or in later reconciling tallies of ballots and voters, local officials discovered problems and corrected final counts.  In some cases, the changes altered the outcomes of local races.  But in North Carolina, the problems were so serious that the state may hold a rare second vote, redoing a contest for state agriculture commissioner decided by fewer votes than the number of ballots lost...  Most of the concerns, which have rocketed through the Internet, center on computerized voting or tabulating machines, including some that do not keep a paper record for audits and recounts.  Some computer scientists acknowledge that these systems could be vulnerable to tampering."

Although she trailed Dino Rossi (R) by 42 votes in the past recount in Washington’s gubernatorial race, and although the secretary of state yesterday certified Rossi as governor-elect, Christine Gregoire issued a statement indicating that she’s moving ahead with her transition -- and is even accepting applications for employment.  “Senator Rossi and I are both moving ahead with our transition plans, even though the election is undecided. It’s still the wise thing to do.  By going ahead with our transition plans, both candidates will be in position to lead the state in January,” Gregoire said in the statement.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has this comment from Rossi: “‘We were certified.  We won the recount with 42 votes.  And we need to move forward now.’”

Meanwhile, Kerry has committed $200,000 of his leftover $15 million-plus to help Washington state Democrats pay for a hand recount, a Kerry source says.

Vice President Cheney stops in Houma, LA today to headline a rally for House candidate Billy Tauzin (R), son of the more famous Billy Tauzin (R), and in Lake Charles, LA for a rally for House candidate Charles Boustany.  Both candidates are in run-offs that represent the last elections of the 2004 cycle.

2005
Sen. Jon Corzine (D) plans to announce he’s running for New Jersey governor as soon as tomorrow, the Washington Post says.  “Corzine… made no secret about his interest in the governorship since James E. McGreevey (D) announced his resignation from the post in August after disclosing he had an adulterous affair with a man whom he hired to oversee the state's homeland security activities… Corzine could face a challenge from acting Gov. Codey in the Democratic primary if Codey decides he wants to keep his new job. Codey is not expected to disclose his plans until after his State of the State address in January.”

“Corzine's six-year Senate term does not end until 2006, so he can keep his Senate seat while running for governor. Under state law, he would name his successor in the Senate if he were elected governor, ensuring that the seat remained in Democratic hands at least through 2006. If he is not elected to the governorship, he would most likely run again for the Senate, a party source said.”

2006
In its article about Kweisi Mfume stepping down as president of the NAACP, the New York Times notes that Mfume has not ruled out “running for a United States Senate seat from Maryland in two years, when Paul S. Sarbanes, 71, the state's senior senator, is up for re-election… Asked whether he would consider trying to unseat Maryland's governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, or to run for Mr. Sarbanes's Senate seat, Mr. Mfume replied, ‘I really don't know what the future holds.’ He added: ‘I learned as I get older never to say “never.” And there's a part of me that says, “Well maybe you might,” but I'm not really sure about that.’”

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