Re: I don't think Lieberman gave Gore that much of a boost. Bush's numbers were artificially high,...
Precisely! Bush's inflated numbers were too good to be true but why did the polling quacks boosted them in the first place? I mean polls are relative and don't matter per se --it's the trend, stupid! To start your campaign with 99% of the polls is no big deal if you end up with 10% on the eve of election day! The polling circuses perfectly knew that, initially, the voters' momentum was on Bush's side --just the same: the higher your initial "state of grace", the harsher your fall from it.... Accordingly, the phoney ratings of both candidates were rigged on a "collision course" purposely --with the expected result of shifting the election momentum onto Gore in the crucial last stretch....
Paris, Friday, November 10, 2000
World Views of U.S. Election: 'Like Italy!' and 'Banana Republic'
Election 2000 / 'A Debacle That Could Turn Into a Comedy,' Said Die Welt
Compiled by Our Staff From Dispatches
Many people around the world are used to elections that are plagued by turmoil, confusion and irregularities. They just are not used to seeing them in the United States.
While the electoral authorities in Florida tried to sort out the ballots to determine whether Governor George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore had won the White House, ordinary citizens from Hong Kong to Helsinki on Thursday marveled at the uncertain electoral situation in the United States.
''It's like Italy!'' said owner of a coffee bar in Rome.
A cab driver in Lagos said, ''If this had happened in Nigeria or anywhere else in Africa, the whole world would be pointing fingers at us.''
Some observers saw the confusion as proof of the strength of the American system of politics. Others were stunned that a country with economic, political and cultural clout in the farthest reaches of the globe could be plunged into electoral limbo.
And Italians, often the butt of jokes about ''opera buffa'' politics and governments falling like leaves, poked fun at the United States on Thursday.
''A day as a banana republic'' was the headline published by La Repubblica, a daily newspaper based in Rome.
Italians are no strangers to postelection confusion, missing ballot boxes, trading votes like baseball cards, exit polls getting it wrong and dead people left on electoral lists. But they never expected it to happen in the United States.
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iht.com |
