However, people here also say that once the new administration begins the job of governing, questions of legitimacy will fade away and professional working relationships will ensue between the Bush administration and world leaders. Remember that eight years ago, President Clinton was similarly inexperienced in the business of foreign policy, but eight years on, he's considered one of the most engaged and committed U.S. presidents on the international scene. That's hard to predict. There are analysts that believe that some countries who are nominally enemies of the U.S., for instance, Iraq, that might be tempted to test the will of the next President. But analysts believe that the United States, when it comes to external threats, has always shown a powerful response.
Many countries have some type of parliamentary system or proportional representation.
I heard many, many comments from many parts of the world. Most people were somewhat indignant, saying that for all these years, the United States has dictated to us how we run our elections, and now they're having problems with their electoral process. I heard a lot of people say that, from Africa, to the Middle East, to Europe. In England, many people wondered why the Americans or the state of Florida didn't just have everyone fill in a ballot by pencil, then have them all hand-counted. But at the end of the day, most people I talked to believed it would be resolved through the courts, through the legal process, without any serious damage to the US infrastructure.