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The day after: high-fives, hanging heads

For bay area fans of President Bush, life was good Wednesday. For John Kerry's supporters, not so much.

TAMPA - Sean Conneely stood on the porch of his South Tampa home Wednesday afternoon, taking drags off his cigarette and choking down coffee.

He brewed the coffee the same way he always does, but on this day, the day Sen. John Kerry conceded the presidential race, it tasted bitter.

Like his beverage, the outcome of the presidential election was hard to swallow.

"Look at what's happened these past four years," said Conneely, 36. "What's going to happen the next four years? (Bush) is not up for re-election. He has no reason to appease anyone."

Several blocks away, 24-year-old nanny Shannon Minor was planning a day at the park. The birds were chirping when she awoke to find out that President Bush was the likely winner. The birds continued to sing as she went about her chores with a spring in her step and a wide grin on her face.

"It's a beautiful day," Minor said. "Our nation is in good hands."

Across the Tampa Bay area Wednesday, half of the voters were slipping into different stages of depression while the other half were going about their merry ways, smiling to no one in particular.

They had stood in line for hours to cast their votes. In Pinellas County, Bush and Kerry supporters were pretty much split down the middle. In Hillsborough, Bush won 53 percent to Kerry's 46 percent.

With vast numbers of polarized voters and interest at a fever pitch nationwide, it seemed as if everyone had a personal stake in the outcome. Collectively, they either brooded or exchanged high-fives.

At the Wine Exchange on Swann Avenue in Tampa, patrons showed up at 11:30 a.m. to down glasses of wine and drown in their sorrows, said bartender Craig Dean.

"They had a lot of hope for change," he said, "and change didn't come."

Hillsborough County's crisis hotline counselors, who usually field one or two calls from distressed voters following an election, had not received any calls by Wednesday afternoon, a counselor said.

At the South Tampa record store Vinyl Fever, employees broke through the somber mood dealt by Kerry's loss through music.

What's Going On by Marvin Gaye played over the loudspeakers.

Store manager Gabe Echazabal said they had plenty of brooding tunes to choose from: Queen's Is This the World We Created; The Clash's I'm so Bored with the USA; Depeche Mode's Black Celebration.

Echazabal joked that Bush backers should play It's Raining Men by the Weather Girls.

"We're looking at each other with disbelief," Echazabal said. "But we're trying to make the most of it."

Meanwhile, at Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, the mood in the front office Wednesday was decidedly upbeat.

"I believe it's a good day for the country," said Pastor Reno Zunz. "I believe (Bush) is a man of integrity and a man of faith."

Zunz said not everybody agrees with everything someone does, but Bush's biblical views align closely with his. "He's a good man and a good leader," he said.

The division sliced friends, co-workers and even families.

Dan and Keith Thomson, father and son, took the election as differently as night and day.

Keith Thomson, 32, a waiter who lives in St. Petersburg, stayed up watching returns until 4:30 a.m., hoping for a Kerry victory. "I was disappointed," he said. He said he felt the American people had been misled about war in Iraq.

Meanwhile, his father Dan went to sleep about 9:30 p.m. at his home in Manatee County, confident that Bush would win re-election. He was happy to learn he was right. The reason he supports Bush?

"I just like his stance on the war," said Dan Thomson, 64, a retired St. Petersburg Times composing room foreman. "Even though it's cost us a lot of Americans, I think it's something we need to do."

The Thomsons put their political differences aside Wednesday for a family lunch and then a beer at Mastry's Bar & Grill in downtown St. Petersburg. The elder Thomson seemed to be smiling a lot more than his son.

Dong-Phuong Nguyen can be reached at nguyen@sptimes.com or 813 226-3403.