Mark Twain Concedes Defeat - Lesbian Daughter May Have Cost Him Election NEW YORK - Mark Twain conceded defeat in a phone call to President Bush shortly after 1:00 this afternoon. Exit polls showed an early lead for the independent candidate but the tide turned as a record number of voters showed that social issues were foremost on their mind. "On the whole it is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them," he told the President in his call this afternoon. Political analysts seemed confidant of a Twain victory until late Tuesday afternoon. As the poll numbers mounted in President Bush's favor, they pointed to revelations about Twain's lesbian daughter Susy, leaked to the Internet by a "Harold K. Bush" just a day before the election, as swaying many voters. By early evening, exit polls in many states indicated that social issues, not the economy, terrorism or the war in Iraq, were a deciding factor in voters' choice for president. In a widely circulated email dated November 1, "Harold K. Bush" directed voters' attention to Mark Twain's daughter's sexual orientation: "Is anyone in the mood to comment on the supposed ties between Susy Clemens and Louise Brownell? Is there any consensus one way or the other regarding the claims of some that they may have been lovers?" One Twain supported admitted that Susy's now-public letters to Louise Brownell "must raise an eyebrow." Speculation and denials continued until the first polls opened in New Hampshire where Twain once commanded a strong lead, especially near his summer residence in Dublin, New Hampshire. Harold Bush's connection to President Bush's family and campaign were not immediately known, but Twain supporters described his email as a political dirty trick. "I don't think it was appropriate to bring the private life of the candidate and his daughter into this debate at all," a spokesperson for the campaign complained. "I thought it was inappropriate and I don't think people like that type of personal politics being brought into the campaign this late in the game." Mary Beth Cahill, John Kerry's campaign manager, said that her sexuality was "fair game." "There are a lot of questions here about gay marriage and she is someone who's a major figure in the campaign," Cahill told Fox News. Mark Twain declined to comment on his daughter's sexual orientation, but said that he was amazed that sexuality had become the determining issue of the election. "There is a Moral Sense, and there is an Immoral Sense," he said. "History shows us that the Moral Sense enables us to perceive morality and how to avoid it, and that the Immoral Sense enables us to perceive immorality and how to enjoy it. It has always been a peculiarity of the human race that it keeps two sets of morals in stock -- the private and the real, and the public and the artificial. Of all the delights of this world man cares most for sexual intercourse. He will go any length for it -- risk fortune, character, reputation, life itself. And what do you think he has done? He has left it out of his heaven! Prayer takes its place." http://www.twain2004.com/news_concession.html Jim Zwick