A large crowd gathered yesterday afternoon in the HUB-Robeson Center to watch the 2004 presidential election wrap up, with both a farewell speech and a victory speech.

"We had a long night, but a great night," President George W. Bush said in his acceptance speech yesterday.

Vice President Dick Cheney introduced Bush and said that he received the most popular votes in U.S. history, with nearly 59 million votes.

Bush received about 33,000 votes in Centre County, while Kerry had about 30,000.

Ronald Reagan received 54,455,075 popular votes in the 1984 election against Democrat Walter Mondale, which was the next highest number of popular votes in an election.

Bush said there was no limit to the greatness of America, and said that the country needed to unite.

"I'm proud to lead such an amazing country," Bush said. "And I'm proud to lead the country forward."

Bush's speech was effective because it was respectful toward the opposition, Kevin Cucuel (senior-crime, law and justice) said.

"Both speeches had a lot of similarities in terms of the need to reach out to the other side in order to move forward. Kerry said America is always moving forward and Bush said he was happy to move forward," he said.

Ashley Hannigan (junior-marketing) agreed that Kerry and Bush were both sincere in their speeches and did what they needed to do.

"It was good because Kerry admitted it when he realized he couldn't win instead of pulling another Al Gore where he contested the results," Hannigan said. "Bush was very heartfelt and said that it was possible to work together and create new opportunities for people."

Brian Kovacs (senior-art) said it was a travesty that Kerry conceded.

"Kerry just conceded because he wanted to avoid another repeat of last election," Kovacs said. "Kerry shouldn't have given up so quickly and should have waited until the last minute."

Cucuel disagreed and said Kerry did the right thing by giving his concession speech.

"Kerry knew that the odds were stacked against him and that if he went through pursuing recounts, that it was possible that this could have extended into the deadline of whether he should pursue the Senate seat or the presidency," Cucuel said.

Cucuel said there was a timeline for senators if they wanted to stay in the Senate and that Kerry had to decide whether he had a reasonable chance to win the presidency.

Christina Alfonso (junior-English) did not care whether Bush was gracious in his acceptance speech.

"There's nothing he could say or do to make me feel better unless he resigns," she said.

Alfonso said Bush could not be trusted because she said she felt he lied to the country about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction and that the lower and middle class will suffer because of Bush's tax cuts.

Jeannie Testa (senior-electrical engineering) was also upset but said that there was one positive thing about Bush's win.

"I think we'll be less prone to attacks under Bush's watch," Testa said, "but that has more to do with the fact that he's the sitting president and that we won't have a switch in the middle of this war against terrorism."

Although most voted for either Bush or Kerry, some supported and voted for Nader.

"I thought Nader was the only competent candidate to lead the country," Dustin Yenser (sophomore-secondary education) said. "But now, I'm behind Bush. He really needs to focus now on giving us achievable and measurable goals for Iraq."

Brittney Carrasco (sophomore-division of undergraduate studies) said she believed that Bush was the man for the job.

"The most important issue facing us now is the war on terrorism and how we need to avoid another 9/11," Carrasco said. "And Bush is more than capable."