WASHINGTON -- Shortly after 4:30 a.m. yesterday Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, slipped out of the Bush victory party headquarters at the Reagan International Trade Center bound for home after a roller-coaster all-night vigil.

		Text of Speech Read the text of President Bush's victory speech

A dispirited group of young volunteers who were slumped on the floor waiting for President Bush to declare victory sighed in unison and put their shoes back on swollen feet as they headed outside to wait for the subway to open.

"They obviously know something we don't. I was all set to celebrate," one said to another, "but I'm sure we'll be back later today."

Ten hours later, they were, vigorously waving red, white and blue pompoms and little American flags.

President Bush, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan, had been champing at the bit to declare victory after spending election night in the White House residence monitoring results with his father, former President George H.W. Bush, who had lost his own bid for a second term; his mother Barbara; his wife Laura; their two daughters; and assorted friends.

Bush said he wanted to go to the victory celebration around 1 a.m. and thank the volunteers. That was about the time Republicans in Ohio were phoning senior political strategist Karl Rove to say they were convinced Sen. John F. Kerry could not get enough votes in Ohio to win and therefore had lost the election.

Bush wanted to exult with top Republicans at the Reagan building whether or not Kerry had conceded. But political aides convinced him not to go himself but to send his chief of staff, a weary, red-eyed Andrew Card.

At 5 a.m. Bush went to bed for two hours, and Card went to the Reagan building to tell a small band of remaining volunteers, some sleeping on the hard floor of the Atrium before an enormous phalanx of TV cameras, that the White House was convinced Bush had won but would give the Kerry campaign a chance to decide what to do before Bush claimed victory.

At 8 a.m. Bush was back in the Oval Office but was too excited to do much work, besides calling other victorious Republican candidates, said McClellan.

That's when the president started hugging. Everyone in sight. He exclaimed, "Team, we did it!"

As he walked down a hallway and bumped into Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney got a hug, too.

Mixed in were serious meetings, among them what was billed as a routine briefing on the war in Iraq with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Shortly after 11 a.m. Bush got the call he'd been eagerly awaiting -- Kerry's concession. A White House photograph shows that Bush was so pumped up he took the call standing behind his desk, a bowl of fresh pink roses behind him, a large beaming smile on his face.

The Kerry campaign said their candidate congratulated the president but then told him that the country was badly divided and they both needed to do something about it. McClellan did not relate that part of the conversation, and neither did the president, although Kerry confirmed it.

Bush watched Kerry's concession speech in Boston on television and met with his speech writers before delivering his own victory remarks at 3 p.m. at the Reagan building. Much of his Cabinet and senior staff were in attendance among the cheering, somewhat bedraggled campaign volunteers swathed in a waving sea of little flags. The country music was turned back on, but the alcohol from the night before was nowhere to be seen.

The crowd had quietly watched Kerry's concession speech on a giant screen, applauding when he referred to America, but displaying little reaction to Kerry's call for seeking common ground without recrimination or rancor.

A short time later, Cheney introduced the president, with his standard joke that, "Once again, I have delivered the state of Wyoming to the Bush-Cheney ticket."

He praised the "record turnout" and "broad nationwide victory." He said, with what passes for jubilance for the taciturn vice president, that Bush had won the greatest number of popular votes ever cast for a U.S. president.

And that, said Cheney, meant Bush had won a "mandate" for his second term.

Bush noted that Kerry had been "very gracious" when they had talked on the phone, said he was humbled by the trust the American people had put in him.

Bush thanked his campaign team, his family, his parents and the American people who had supported him. He asked those who had voted for Kerry to give him their support and said he would do all he could to earn their trust. He quoted an old saying, "Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, but pray for powers that are equal to your tasks."

Citing his priorities for his second term, Bush said he wants to spur the economy, reform the tax code, strengthen Social Security, improve schools, uphold the deepest values of family and faith, help Iraq and Afghanistan defend their freedom and work with "good allies at our side" to win the war against terrorism.

"When we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America," he said.

The young campaign volunteers, straggling out of the Reagan building after the president's brief remarks, seemed at loose ends.

"It's too early to party," one man told his friends. "What do you guys feel like doing?" After hanging around for a few minutes, they went their separate ways.