Bush lost the election but won the court decision thanks stritly to Scalia who is a Bush crony.
Bush also won the intimidation game in Florida thanks to James Baker and a band of rightwing thugs terrorizing vote recounters so they coultn't get their job done in time.
Gore won the national popular vote by a nice margin. In Florida,Jeb illegally cut 57,700 mainly minority voters off the rolls using tyhe excuse that they were ex-feloins. In fact most of them were not, just had similar names as out nof state ex-felons. That has been proven. This was not denied by Wellpoint, the GOP crony-owned consulting company hired to scrub the rolls, it was simply called a "mistake". Some mistake huh?
If this had gone to court prior to a Gore concession it would have resulted in a re-vote which would have paralyzed the nation but which would have ended in a Gore victory. You can't make the point that Gore couldn't have gotten more than 1000 extra votes amongst 57,700 mainly minority voters when he got about 90% of the black vote and 65% of the Hispanic vote.
Also in Florida, a fair recount might have given Gore the win anyway, and the late votes from the overseas military should have been expunged. That might have also made the difference.
The Bush machine had it all fixed and played it smart and slick. They "won" by cheating. But in the minds and hearts of those in the know about what really went on, Bush simply stole the election and really lost it. That is why we have the right to say Bush did not
win that election. If all legal votes had been allowed and counted, Gore probably would have won by more than 20,000 votes.
Now, looking forward (because it does us no real good to look back), I predict Kerry beats Bush by a nice margin this year. Though many polls show them almost tied, Zogby makes the important point that almost all undecideds swing to the chellenger when an incumbant is running. It's now up to Kerry to simply present himself as honest and acceptable and everything should fall into place. The Bush presidency has been a dark blemish on the American soul. It needs to go. |
