Battlefield Florida. Yes Al Gore won but it was stolen.

[JanMichael]

http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/winter2005/features/battlefield.html

Add the purged voters with the "overvotes" and even with the shitty choice for VP he won.

Antequated systems and conservative desire to keep minorities from voting anyway possible made this happen.

People focus on the wrong issues with the 2000 theft.

RnR what’s the overarching theme of The Battle for Florida?

LdHS: It really tells a simple story in some ways. It essentially says that the people responsible for administering the election had a conflict of interest and that they, in a variety of ways, prevented the recount from being conducted.

I go into explaining…why would it operate like this? One factor that drove it this way is essentially that the Republicans are on the losing side of a huge demographic trend in this state: an increasing minority population. And they know this—it’s not a secret.
One reason there was administrative sabotage of the recount was because a number of steps had already been taken to try to lock in the Republican control of Florida in the face of these demographics that are running in the other direction.
The other thing the book looks at, in addition to the long history leading up to this event, is also what came out afterwards, what was done, were problems corrected, what investigations were conducted? And the story there is, gee, there was really very little investigation, amazingly little, given the importance of the election and the controversy.
Frankly, I would never have written this book had there been any careful investigation done afterwards. That was what shook me after the election, I was expecting people would go into it, find out what had happened and straighten out the problems so it wouldn’t happen again.

[joeybee12]

1. This amazes me...especially since the MSM ignored the theft...knr

[questionseverything]

2. from the article...

LdHS: It’s an embarrassing outcome for George Bush because it showed that Gore had gotten more votes. Everybody had thought that the chads were where all the bad ballots were, but it turned out that the ones that were the most decisive were write-in ballots where people would check Gore and write Gore in, and the machine kicked those out. There were 175,000 votes overall that were so-called “spoiled ballots.” About two-thirds of the spoiled ballots were over-votes; many or most of them would have been write-in over-votes, where people had punched and written in a candidate’s name. And nobody looked at this, not even the Florida Supreme Court in the last decision it made requiring a statewide recount. Nobody had thought about it except Judge Terry Lewis, who was overseeing the statewide recount when it was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. The write-in over-votes have really not gotten much attention. Those votes are not ambiguous. When you see Gore picked and then Gore written in, there’s not a question in your mind who this person was voting for. When you go through those, they’re unambiguous: Bush got some of those votes, but they were overwhelmingly for Gore. For example, in an analysis of the 2.7 million votes that had been cast in Florida’s eight largest counties, The Washington Post found that Gore’s name was punched on 46,000 of the over-vote ballots it, while Bush’s name was marked on only 17,000.

[JanMichael]

6. yep. we focused on the wrong issue. nt

[questionseverything]

42. yes gore focused on the undervotes in specific counties

when he should of asked for a state wide recount

in his defense we all were pretty unaware of election rigging back then,or at least i was

lance dehaven smith has been a hero to me for years, thanks for the thread

[Festivito]

10. "Spoiled" ballots AND a spoilt Supreme Court.

Mostly the court.

It was very very very very very lucky lucky lucky lucky lucky for Republicans that Thurgood Marshall became sick when he did.

Did I mention it was very lucky? Is there such a thing as too lucky? Like, is there such a thing as MIHOP versus LIHOP.

[morningglory]

30. Gov. Jeb Bush directed the ballots be stored in the State library.

Then funding was cut to the library and the ballots were moved to a storage where the Florida humidity and bugs will destroy them eventually. They can never be analyzed.

[pnwmom]

3. It wouldn't have been close enough to steal if Nader hadn't gotten 95,000 votes

the old-fashioned way. Pretending that Al Gore and George Bush were "Tweedledee and Tweedledum"

[onehandle]

7. Exactly. Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, Karl Rove, and the GOP failed to steal Florida.

If not for Ralph Nader spending Weeks in Florida, SCOTUS could have never sealed the deal.

[rhett o rick]

11. With all the corruption and you still blame someone that did nothing wrong.

There were many failures and nothing was done but blame Nader.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. It is far easier than dealing with the systemic

Issues at play. Or the third world like lever of yes...corruption

[rhett o rick]

25. Correct. Nader is a distraction from the corruption that some want to ignore. nm

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Some places is worst than others

but frankly I feel like I am back in Mexico. Wait, at times I feel it is worst than Mexico, since it is at far higher levels. And the Princeton Profs finally came out and confirmed my suspicions about a bad oligarchy. I vote to remain in practice, becuase it really does not matter.

[rhett o rick]

35. I vote to force the Oligarchy to steal the election. Maybe the sheeple will someday wake up

and see what's happening.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. Nope, that won't happen and this is partly why

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027482107

Notice, it got like zero interest here, and there is a reason why... but it did get traffic at other places where people are still concerned about these issues.

[yeoman6987]

4. Gore should have won his homestate and all this would not have happened

No president ever lost their homestate ever and to lose it to W? Horrible.

[JanMichael]

5. i am saying he won florida (and the election) regardless of the homestate or nader influences. nt

[TipTok]

8. Lots of different things..

... But in the end he did lose and W moved to DC.

[1939]

15. McGovern lost his home state to Nixon NT

[yeoman6987]

18. Yep. Lose your homestate lose the presidency.

[Kingofalldems]

21. You seem to bring that up quite often. Like just yesterday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=post&forum=1002&pid=7483266

And nothing about what the OP is saying.



Why is that?

[RandiFan1290]

16. Bush lost his home state of Connecticut

Why do 'publicons always forget that?

[Kingofalldems]

20. Because the right wing has their own facts.

[rhett o rick]

26. He changed his "home state" to Texas, I think.

JK

[spanone]

22. his/my home state has been abandoned by the party.

republicans own all facets of politics here in tennessee

[CrispyQ]

27. We used to have a guy who advocated & pushed a 50 state strategy with great success!

Gee, whatever happened to him & why didn't the dems stick with that strategy? We're being played by our own party. The dems are the good cop to the repub's bad cop.

[brooklynite]

31. What did the 50 State Strategy have to do with Gore's performance in Florida?

[CrispyQ]

37. I wasn't responding to the OP,

but rather to the post about the dem party deserting an entire state.

[colsohlibgal]

9. Pure Theft Indeed

Dubya's brother was governor, his state campaign manager, the dragon lady, was the state's head election official. There was no way this state was going to Gore, whatever it took, and in the end the Supremes sealed the deal on the coup. History will not treat this episode kindly.

Of course again Gore but himself behind the 8 ball by, like most democrats, conceding ASAP in a razor thin election....to naively be honorable while the right totally believes the end justifies the means. They play hardball, we play softball.

[annabanana]

19. Here is a picture of the theft being carried out:

[rhett o rick]

12. The hubris of the Democratic Party Elite (DLC) ran Gore even though

the people were sick of the DLC/Clinton/Gore. People like to tell us now how Americans love Clinton but they didn't vote that way in 2000. Then when lots of illegal things occurred including illegal actions by the SCOTUS, no one did anything more than blame Nader, who did nothing illegal. The Democratic Party didn't seem to care that the election was stolen. They acted like they lost a tennis match.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. You mean to tell me it was nota tennis match?

And all these years... (I kid of course)

[rhett o rick]

23. You'd have thought the Democratic Party Leadership would have been livid and

instituted actions to preclude this from ever happening again. But, no, the "sneaky" Republicons did it again in 2004. Who could ever have guessed that would happen. And again the Democratic Party Leadership did nothing. So why would that be? Maybe the wealthy that control the Democratic Party Leadership are ok with the results. Goldman-Sachs a big supporter of the DNC and HRC said they don't care if Clinton or Bush wins. So again, why does the Oligarchy not care if HRC wins or not, just as long as Sen Sanders doesn't win. The answer is simple, the goals of the Oligarchy aren't the same as Sen Sanders but seem to align with HRC's goals.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. That is the way oligarchies work

[Omaha Steve]

17. "even with the shitty choice for VP he won"

Senator Lieberman’s Remarks at the Republican Convention
http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/conventions/videos/transcripts/20080902_LIEBERMAN_SPEEC.html


Running mate selection
Main article: Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection, 2000
Senator Barbara Boxer of California
Governor Gray Davis of California
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California
Senator and Fmr. Governor Bob Graham of Florida
Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa
Governor Jim Hunt of North Carolina
Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska
Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland
Senator and Fmr. Governor Zell Miller of Georgia
Fmr. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell of Maine
Fmr. Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia
Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson of New Mexico

Short list
Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo of New York
Senator John Edwards of North Carolina
House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts
Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut
Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

[rhett o rick]

24. The Oligarchy loved Lieberman. The Oligarchy won the election in 2000

and it's not hard to figure out why.

[CrispyQ]

28. It was stolen in 2000 & the dems did nothing. Nothing.

So who was surprised when it was stolen it again in 2004 & the dems did nothing again? They never will address electronic voting. Or money in politics. Never. I am so done with the democratic party. Oh I'll vote for them to keep the crazies out, but no money & no time, no enthusiasm. And if they keep drifting to the right like this, eventually I won't even vote for them.

[Hortensis]

32. That's because we were all so HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY.

Or maybe there were other answers? We all educate ourselves when we want to know the truth and refuse to when it might upset our favorite notions, and of course when we just don't care enough to bother.

BTW, as a Republican or whatever you call yourself, my question is why YOU and your group did nothing. Forget us Democrats. Shouldn't your first question be about your own behavior? Is election theft by definition okay with people like you?

[CrispyQ]

38. Good grief. I'm lamenting the party drifting to the right & you think I'm a repub?

Maybe you should look at you're own behavior, cuz right now, you look like a jerk.

[Hortensis]

39. It's mutual, and I refer your to both to your own "they"

and right back to my question. What did YOU do? Obviously you didn't consider yourself a Democrat when "they" did "nothing. So, what did YOU and those like you do about it?

[CrispyQ]

40. I continued to vote democratic & I support Brad Blog.

What did you do?

[Hortensis]

41. Oh, I threw an ongoing hissie that terminally offended

a couple crowing members of my gardening group, indulged a couple fantasies about Katherine Harris and probably a couple others dying while I refused to save them, and told everyone who'd discuss it that counting the vote is sacred and everything should have been secondary to respect for that. I meant it and mean it -- who won was secondary to an honest election. Later I read a number of analyses of the election and bought a book whose title I can report only because it's sitting on a shelf over there - Toobin's "Too Close to Call, etc, etc."

All to such important effect, of course. What I did NOT do was claim that a loss resulting from the two adverse decisions by mostly conservative Supreme Court justices and the shocking GOP election tampering in a bunch of states, not just Florida, was somehow the fault of the Democratic Party. What do you think -- that Gore just shrugged and said, "Well, win some, lose some" as he prepared to concede the election?

In my opinion, those who blame the DEMOCRATS -- FOR GOD'S SAKE! serve us and the whole nation up to GOP corruption, GOP election theft past and future, and SCOTUS justices who think they can ignore the will of the people aside (rightly--they can!) and appoint a president with the excuse that recounting would "take too long" and "not make any difference anyway." What can one expect of DEMOCRATS, after all?

[CrispyQ]

43. Whatever.

[JEB]

29. Gore/Lierdude caused Nader to lose.

[MH1]

44. The voter purge is the huge piece that many people are ignorant of. nt.