Our many friends who tell us that they detest President Bush – and we have many such friends – stress a sense that the president hoodwinked the country. Americans would never have supported the president, or his foreign policy, had they been fully informed, they have said. Mr. Bush and his advisers manipulated the country into going to war. “He misled America,” said Senator Kerry. “He played on our fears,” said Vice President Gore. “They deliberately deceived the public, the Congress, and the United Nations,” said George Soros, the billionaire financier.

To those who bought into this idea, it’s going to be hard now to argue that the American people remain in the dark. Not only did Mr. Kerry and the Democratic Party make the anti-Bush case, but their supporters took to the streets in unprecedented numbers to bring the worst case they could make about Mr. Bush to the American people, and with enormous financial backing. Independent liberal groups amassed $300 million – including $24 million from Mr. Soros – to expose Mr. Bush’s supposed deceptions and mobilize their voters. The press relentlessly investigated the White House’s claims. Never has there been an election where more evidence was available to the American people.

The argument has gone that once Americans heard the truth, they’d reject the president’s policies. Yet at press time the American people have apparently decided to return Mr. Bush to the White House and with a popular-vote majority. So support for the president didn’t rely on deception after all. It turns out that Americans aren’t misinformed; they just disagree with the Democratic vision. It will be hard to sustain a campaign of hate for another four years.