November 2004 was grimly dominated by the re-election of President Bush, which I honestly had not seen coming. It was an important lesson to me to avoid wishful thinking in my elections analysis in the future. The newly re-elected Bush administration immediately recognised Macedonia as Macedonia, which probably played an important role in the failure of the following week's referendum which would have reversed some elements of the post-conflict local government reform if it had passed. We presciently published a report on
South Ossetia, and I had
another op-ed on Moldova. My one work trip was to Geneva, where I rather bravely drove there and back; I remember a long and valuable walking conversation with
Pat Cox beside the lake, where he gave me some invaluable career advice ("read the paperwork
before the meeting"), and also giving
Hattie Babbitt a lift to Geneva Airport as I departed. We actually managed two family trips, one ot the Ardennes with the kids, and one with just the two of us to the Hague for a
dance performance connected with the royal wedding earlier in the year.
November 2004 booksNon-genre 7 (2004 total 19)
SF 3 (YTD 71)
2,800 pages (YTD 46,000)
3/10 by women (YTD 34/130)
