The GOP's Popular-Vote Hypocrisy
In the days before the Nov. 7 election, Republicans
feared that Vice President Al Gore might win the
Electoral College while Texas Gov. George W. Bush
could win the national popular vote.
The expectation then was that Green Party candidate Ralph
Nader might siphon off millions of votes from Gore
nationwide, but not enough in key states to keep them out of
Gore's column.
That could allow Gore to amass the 270 electoral votes
needed for winning the presidency while blocking a Gore
plurality in the popular vote.
To stop Gore under those circumstances, advisers to the
Bush campaign weighed the possibility of challenging the
legitimacy of a popular-vote loser gaining the White House.
One article describing the Republican thinking appeared in
The Boston Herald on Nov. 3. It quoted Republican sources
outlining plans to rally public sentiment against Gore’s
election if he won the Electoral College but lost the popular
vote.
“The Bush camp, sources said, would likely challenge the
legitimacy of a Gore win, casting it as an affront to the
people’s will and branding the Electoral College as an
antiquated relic,” said the article by Andrew Miga.
“One informal Bush adviser, who declined to be named,
predicted Republicans would likely benefit from a storm of
public outrage if Bush won the popular vote but was denied
the presidency,” the article said.
The article quoted the Bush adviser as saying: “That’s what
America is all about, isn’t it. I’m sure we would make a
strong case.”
The Nov. 7 election turned out differently, however.
Gore appears to be the popular-vote winner by a margin now
standing at about 200,000 votes nationwide, while Bush
contends that he is the Electoral College winner because he
holds a tiny lead in Florida, which would put him over the top
in electoral votes.
Gone is the Republican talk of challenging the Electoral
College as an anti-democratic relic. Gone is the principled
stand in defense of the expressed will of the American
people. Gone is the outrage over a popular-vote winner –
now apparently Al Gore – being “denied the presidency.”
Instead, the Bush campaign is denouncing the Gore
campaign even for questioning voting irregularities in
Florida, though these acknowledged errors likely cost Gore
a clear majority in Florida, too.
Though that Florida vote count still is not complete, with
several thousand overseas ballots to be tabulated, Bush --
apparently untroubled by his defeat in the popular vote -- is
moving forward with his transition to the presidency.
consortiumnews.com |
