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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PartyTime who wrote (67910)	11/10/2000 7:06:17 AM
From: Snowman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

"I guess the money interests within the Bush campaign have proven more powerful than good citizenship"..you and other democrats are fools if you truly think that the money interests are all on the side of the Republicans. Lawyers are for democrats for one reason only, money. Care to guess why unions are for Gore?

To: PartyTime who wrote (67910)	11/10/2000 7:10:24 AM
From: Zakrosian	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

The lead editorial in this morning's Washington Post (which strongly edorsed Gore in this election): washingtonpost.com 'Awarding' Florida GEORGE W. Bush's lead over Al Gore in Florida, and thus in the race for the presidency, appeared to have melted to fewer than 300 votes last night as a result of the still-incomplete recount required by state law. The Gore campaign announced that it would seek further reviews, in the form of hand counts in four populous pro-Gore counties, and that it might launch lawsuits too. The call for as careful a count as possible in an election as close as this, with so much a stake, seems unobjectionable to us; it can only help to ensure legitimacy. But Gore campaign manager William Daley then took the reckless further step of suggesting in so many words that the election will be illegitimate if in the end Mr. Bush is declared the winner. "If the will of the people is to prevail, Al Gore should be awarded a victory in Florida and be our next president," he said. A Bush victory would mean the White House had been stolen; that was the plain meaning of the remark. It's a poisonous thing to say in these extraordinary and unsettling circumstances, and Mr. Gore makes a huge mistake if he fails promptly to disown it. The country was almost exactly evenly divided in the election. Half is going to be sorely disappointed no matter who finally takes the oath. Some are going to feel cheated as well. The goal of both candidates, even as they pursue their interests in Florida, should be to minimize that likely sour outcome. They owe it to the office to which they aspire, and to their own reputations over time, to conduct themselves such that whoever wins has the best possible chance of being accepted as the rightful occupant of the office. Mr. Daley yesterday, and Mr. Gore by proxy, crossed to the wrong side of that line. Mr. Daley and others in the campaign also continue to imply that Mr. Gore's narrow lead in the popular vote somehow gives him superior status--if not quite a partial claim to the office, then a greater right to contest the electoral outcome in Florida. But that's false, and they know it. The electoral vote is what matters. The Florida result was not going to be final last night in any case. There are absentee votes to be counted, apparently enough to tip the outcome. The absentee count cannot be completed by law until next Friday. That leaves time for hand counts, and further inquiry. The Bush people would plainly rather that none of that occur. "If the recount . . . confirms the Election Day result . . . then . . . yes, [Mr. Bush] thinks that's final," his campaign manager Don Evans said before any total was announced. "Our democratic process calls for a vote on Election Day. It does not call for us to continue voting until someone likes the outcome." But that too is blithe. The Bush campaign shouldn't be leaking purported news about its transition plans and otherwise giving the impression of measuring for new curtains in the Oval Office. Florida hasn't certified its results, and Mr. Bush has no more claim to the title of president-elect than the vice president. Both sides need to back off at this stage. They are risking a political war that could spread far beyond Florida, one that would be far harder to stop than to begin. We say yes to counting a little more, but the legal action about which Mr. Daley spoke elliptically should be approached with enormous caution and restraint. Absent more than is currently known, our sense is that either a lawsuit or a repeat vote would raise at least as many questions as it would likely resolve; the courts in the end can't legitimize the results. One of these candidates--the one behind in the final Florida count--is going to have to make a political determination. You have to hope that whoever that turns out to be has in mind the country's interests ahead of his own. PartyTime - Did you formerly post under the name Vanni Resta by any chance?