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

To: American Spirit who wrote (75894)	11/15/2000 2:38:19 PM
From: Bob	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769669

November 13, 2000 Commentary Gore Challenge Undermines U.S. Democracy By William J. Bennett Al Gore's transparent efforts to overturn election results that are unfavorable to him are doing terrible and lasting damage to the nation he has spent most of his adult life hoping to lead. As everybody knows by now, George W. Bush last week won the unofficial recount in Florida. Tomorrow, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris is scheduled to announce the official ballot results from all 67 counties; by Friday the state will tabulate ballots cast by Floridians overseas. The evidence indicated that last Tuesday's results would be upheld. But as everybody also knows, the Gore campaign began a massive campaign to subvert this outcome, including its most recent effort to insist on a manual recount in four predominantly Democratic counties. Gore campaign chairman William Daley has even suggested that unless Al Gore is awarded victory in Florida, the election will be illegitimate. "If the will of the people is to prevail," Mr. Daley said, "Al Gore should be awarded a victory in Florida and be our next president." To clarify some matters raised last week: The chief complaint made by the Gore campaign consists of the charge that the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County is "deceptive, misleading and confusing," and led many people to mistakenly vote for Pat Buchanan. Yet butterfly ballots have long been used without challenge. County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore, a Democrat, designed the ballots to make reading them easier for the county's elderly population. The ballots were sent out long before the election, approved by both parties and printed in advance in newspapers. No complaints were raised. There is nothing deceptive about the ballot (it has been used in places like Cook County in Illinois, the home of Mr. Daley) and no credible judge in America would find merit in the Palm Beach challenge. If the ballot was as confusing as the Gore campaign asserts, Mr. Buchanan would have won far more than 3,400 votes out of the more than 400,000 cast. As for the charge that 19,000 ballots in Palm Beach county were disqualified because more than one candidate was selected, there are two points to be made. First, a similarly high number of ballots was disqualified from the same county in 1996 (and 143,000 total state ballots were disqualified); and second, every jurisdiction in America discards ballots where two different candidates are selected. When citizens enter a voting booth we have the right to assume they will take the time necessary to understand the ballot and vote for only one candidate. To throw out an election based on the carelessness of a small fraction of the voting public would lead to chaos. But something else must be said. Since last Tuesday's election, we are seeing something unmistakable. It is the continuation of a persistent pattern that has characterized the Clinton-Gore years: the willingness to undermine constitutional government and place partisan political interests ahead of the good of the nation. In this instance, the Gore campaign is resorting to unprecedented tactics to ensure that its man becomes president. What is at stake here is something far more important than the political futures of Albert Arnold Gore Jr. and George Walker Bush. This is a deeply significant moment for American constitutional government, and one fraught with peril. Our democracy depends on people abiding by certain unwritten rules. One of them has been that presidential candidates who lose an election do not contest the loss unless there is evidence of massive fraud and abuse (which is clearly not the case in this election). If those unwritten rules are violated, it sets in motion events that could precipitate an authentic political crisis. If the Gore campaign continues down this road, it will establish precedents. Do we really want to get into the habit of contesting every state that is decided by a razor-thin margin? Do we want to arrive at a point where, in a close campaign, the losing candidate reverts to challenge after challenge? Is it healthy for our nation to endlessly search for voter grievances? Do we want to make it a commonplace practice for losing candidates to resort to manual recounts of counties that are favorable to them? Is it a good idea to force winning candidates to take actions they would rather not, so they can preserve their victories? There would be no end point to such challenges. Regrettably, and recklessly, during the past 100 hours the Gore campaign has begun to poison the wellspring of American democracy. We are beginning to see the early consequences: street demonstrations, protests, increasing acrimony and bitterness. Things will only get worse, far worse, if they prolong this ordeal. To use a favorite Gore campaign phrase, "You ain't seen nothing yet." Forty years ago, Richard Nixon had a far more compelling reason than Mr. Gore to challenge the 1960 election results, since we know fraud in Chicago and Texas helped swing the election to John Kennedy. But Nixon refused to challenge the results; the morning after the election he conceded. Nixon has been universally praised -- including by many liberals and Democrats -- for his gesture. He put his nation above his own ambitions. The same can be said of Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft, who last week graciously conceded defeat rather than pursue a court challenge after losing to a deceased candidate. But Mr. Gore has chosen a different path. Every day, it seems, he and his lieutenants pull a new trick out of their bag, challenge settled practices, and issue irresponsible threats and baseless accusations. The end game is clear: to throw sand in the machinery of democracy and destabilize American presidential politics. I hope, and still believe, these efforts will fail. But whether they do or not, Mr. Gore is well on his way to earning the scorn of his countrymen and a harsh verdict from history.

To: American Spirit who wrote (75894)	11/15/2000 2:38:25 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769669

The electoral college system was cleverly designed to insure that our elected President was a President of all the states. The system prevents the larger states like CA and NY from garnering all of a candidates attention. The number of states is relevant. The EC makes it so. JLA

To: American Spirit who wrote (75894)	11/15/2000 2:38:58 PM
From: Bill	Respond to of 769669

I don't think you grasp what you are saying.

To: American Spirit who wrote (75894)	11/15/2000 2:47:28 PM
From: Dr. Voodoo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769669

You have no idea what you are talking about. I feel a TOU violation coming on so I will stop here.

To: American Spirit who wrote (75894)	11/15/2000 2:49:31 PM
From: RON BL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769669

States shouldn't matter. That whole idea is out-dated by 100 years. No state is going to war with another these days There you have proven yourself to be the absolute control freak that I said you were. In one breath multi-culturalism and in the next break we must all think alike. You sir are a fraud