TUESDAY’S EXIT POLLS showed that voters identified “moral values” ahead of jobs and the economy–and even terrorism–as the matter most on their minds. Some 80 percent of those most concerned about values voted for George W. Bush. Obviously, “value voters” helped President Bush win a second term. Bush had a lot to do with that, of course, in the positions he took and the rhetoric he used. But so did John Kerry.

Bush repeatedly defined the “values” at stake in the election. He introduced the subject in speeches by stating–as he did last week in Westlake, Ohio–that “over the next four years, we will work to protect and defend the values that make our country such a unique place.” You’ll note the defining clause there, a testament to American exceptionalism, itself a value and not one highlighted by the global-tester Kerry.