Maroon: Was the election fair?

JMH: It depends upon whether you like the outcome. There were problems, and there will continue to be problems, but without secretaries of state, state legislatures, state courts, and the Supreme Court having to step in, it certainly feels more fair than in 2000.

Maroon: What message would you tell Kerry activists on campus spent so much time campaigning for a candidate who eventually lost?

JMH: The world did not end. The Democratic Party is no longer the majority party in the country, but neither is the Republican Party. The electorate is about evenly divided, and the new majority party will be the one that captures the middle.

Maroon: What message would you tell Bush supporters on campus, who may feel like they’re a small minority?

JMH: The world is not made fundamentally anew. George W. Bush may have received the most votes of any presidential candidate in American history—population growth is a wondrous thing—but John Kerry received the second largest number of votes of any presidential candidate in American history. The voters may have given the Republican Party the ability to govern, but now it has the responsibility to govern.