Gore did not win this election so much as Bush lost it. Time to accept that now.
The 20 year-old DUI flap cost W all his momentum at the end, and it was a reckless, stupid gamble to hope that no Dem out there somewhere wasn't sitting and waiting with this ammunition. Had W let this out months earlier, it would have been a non-issue, and I wouldn't still be up at this late hour tonight.
The Bush lawyers were hopelessly outclassed By Boies and his team. You were right about the psychology, but the Bush team was clueless about what psychology to use. What these justices did (very predictably), is start with a point of view, and then set their clerks to the task of finding the law that would justify it. Boies knew enough to hand them the key citation, the Illinois case. Meanwhile, the Bush lawyers spent all their time lecturing the justices about what they couldn't do. To top it off, they insulted the justices in the process. The worst psychology possible. What the Bush lawyers needed to do was to give the justices (advocate) a different point of view from the start--namely the will and the voice of all the people who don't live in the three Fla. counties.
So, by default, hopefully this all ends on Sunday with a concession from Bush and Al Gore as our new president. The U.S. Supreme Court will never touch this with a ten-foot pole--yet another misconception of the Bush team.
As distasteful as this is to me personally, I do not see blood in the streets or the demise of the stock market.
I think the American people will breathe a sigh of relief that it has finally ended and get on with their lives. |
