prompted me to put this up on my site. I can't believe they're still running with this crap.
Republicans have been calling for Al Gore to concede the election. Why? Al Gore leads in the popular vote. Al Gore leads in the electoral college. There are serious questions that need to be answered regarding the voting in Florida. Bush's hair-thin margin in that state does not entitle him to the Presidency of the United States - there are thousands upon thousands of votes that were disqualified across the state. That is why the Bush campaign is filing in federal court to stop the hand count of those ballots. They know that when those ballots have been counted by hand that Gore will emerge the winner.
Republicans have been citing the "noble" precedent of Richard M. Nixon in deciding not to challenge the legitimacy of the Cook County, Illinois vote count. They're attempting to rewrite history. There was nothing noble about Nixon's decision, it was simply realism on his part.
- His friend, William P. Rogers, the U.S. Attorney General, advised him that there was no realistic ground for him to challenge the vote. There was as much suspicion of Republican manipulation in downstate Illinois as there was of Democratic manipulation in Cook County.
- Kennedy won the popular vote, and Kennedy won 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219. The 27 votes in Illinois would not have made a bit of difference in the outcome.
The Bush campaign is trying to claim that somehow, utilizing Florida's own laws to get a hand recount is creating havoc (this from the people who shut down the US Government, and spent six years and tens of millions of dollars trying to find something to impeach a democratically elected President on). George W. Bush himself signed into law legislation allowing hand recounting of votes in Texas, claiming that it was more accurate than machine counting. In addition, if it's so dangerous to the American way of life, then why did Bush, Baker, et. al. not decry the hand count in Republican heavy Seminole County, which gave Mr. Bush an additional 98 votes? You know, I know, the American People know, Bob Dole knows, the world knows, and the Bush camp knows why they went to court. But let's just ask Dubya the question.... - If you're so certain that you've won the election, then why even worry about a recount?
Creating havoc? I think not. Americans are smarter than that. They know that the process is going through in an orderly way. The recount won't be official until November 17th anyway. So why the desire for haste? Why try to defeat a hand recount? Simple, they're scared. They know that the attempts at manipulation will be uncovered, and they know for a fact that Vice-President Gore legally won in Florida.