The possibility of Gore "winning" this election by dragging it out, by the use of selective recounts, and by sending rabble rousers (e.g., Jesse) to stir crowds is becoming real.
He lost the first count. He lost the automatic recount. He lost the manual recount on the 1% of the Palm Beach votes. He will probably lose with the absentees. Suppose that, with the full Palm Beach manual recount, he wins? We will have a President who takes office after several losses, because of a manual recount of ballots in one county, in one state, of the nation. And whose "win" would have been based on the opinion of a handful of officials about the intent of voters who did not follow the pre-set rules on how to fill out a proper ballot. And in spite of thousands of similar ballots in other counties, in Florida and in other states, in which similar errors may have been made, but that were not similarly recounted.
This would be a result more Clintonian than even Clinton could have cooked up. In my wildest dreams I can not imagine Bush, or any other patriotic leader, wanting to assume the Presidency under those conditions. Frankly, until today I could not have imagined Gore doing this. |
