The Democrats won the election, because they were able to bridge the differences between their northern and southern members.

VOA: special.2009.04.16

He will have earned it, if his second election victory means he can find a way to build a bridge between two Americas.

BBC: Four more years of what?

That may help to explain why Mary Robinson's election in 1990 heralded a more liberal and less Catholic country while seven years later Mary McAleese's "bridge-building" theme foreshadowed what politicians south of the border believe was the reconciliation of the Good Friday Agreement a year later.

BBC: Irish presidency: candidates go from sinner to saint