(I know. Just what this board needs; another election thread. My apologies if I’m raising points that have already been made, but I haven’t even tried to read all the threads on this subject.)
I feel George W. Bush is on the verge of making a huge mistake that could ruin his presidency. Let me say outright I voted for Al Gore and feel he was the better candidate. But I will concede that from all appearances, Bush won the election and will become the next president. So now it’s in my interest to hope he does a good job.
Bush is going to enter office with a number of burdens. There will be the obvious one every president has faced, of having to win over his opponent’s supporters. In Bush’s case, he will be facing a much more difficult task than most. He will be one of the few presidents to have to contend with the fact that another candidate received more votes than he did.
So I think Bush should be doing all he can to emphasize that while he may not have received the most votes, he won by fair means. And this means he should be doing all he can to ensure there are no public doubts about the legality of the election. By this logic, Bush should be the loudest voice calling for a complete count of all Florida votes.
If the Florida courts follow through on their proposed plan to close the tallies Tuesday, Bush will undoubtedly be announced as the winner. But even before his election, he will already be a lame duck president. He will be weighed down by the loss of the popular vote, questions about whether the Florida electoral votes were really his, and almost certain allegations that his brother “helped” him.
Bush needs to realize the most important thing is not to start his administration early, but to start it right.
When I checked CNN’s site earlier today, I saw that out of almost 100,000,000 (that’s a HUNDRED MILLION) total votes cast in the US, only 222,880 more votes were cast for Gore. That isn’t much. So, rather than thinking that Gore received “more” votes (he did, but really, it’s a slight margin) I think that both guys got almost equal votes. So if Gore becomes Pres. instead of Bush, HALF of the Country is going to be thinking that Gore wasn’t the guy they wanted. It goes both ways. Yes, this is a mess.
As far as the votes in Florida: You do realize, that in Duval County, a Republican county, 26,000 votes were not counted? Undoubtedly many, many Bush votes could be uncovered there, if a hand count were held there. (Why Bush didn’t ask for one, IMO, is the real mistake he made in this.) For Gore to select a few counties and just do a hand count there (counties that would undoubtedly glean more Gore votes than Bush votes) does not look like a “fair count of all votes.” It’s not, really. For there to be the appearance of a fair count of all votes, Duval’s 26,000 uncounted ballots should also undergo a hand-count. And perhaps other counties as well.
yosemitebabe, you hit the nail on the head. What the Dems are doing unquestionably skews the results.
I predict the Solomon-like decision of the judge will be to extend the certification deadline AND permit Bush to request further recounts despite being past that deadline.
I say count 'em all–and count 'em all the same way–or don’t recount any (beyond the legally mandated recount). To only count certain counties with this degree of scrutiny provides a false precision.
Even though it may be a political mistake, I think that Bush is behaving quite statesmanly. Instead of matching the Democrats “recount for recount” he’s very openly stated that he believes that according to state law the recounts HAVE been done and that the best course for the country is to accept a final count consisting of the recounted tallies and the absentee ballots.
Toward the OP, Rasmussen Research has posted a poll result that states that 95% of those that voted for Bush think that he won the election. 78% of those that voted for Gore think that he won the election.
This reinforces the poster’s point that whoever the courts ultimately name as president will most certainly reign over a divided country.
I find it interesting that the Bush voters are almost unamimous in their belief that Bush is the legal president, while there appears to be some doubt among Gore voters. Just speculating, but I wonder if that’s because so many of the Gore voters were last minute decisions?
Actually, according to George Will’s column in the Washington Post today, most of those thrown-out ballots in Duval County were from the areas of Duval County that voted heavily Democratic. So a hand count there is likely to skew things in Gore’s favor as well.
According to the Atlanta Constitution this morning, Gore’s team has offered to settle all disputes by agreeing to a statewide hand recount in Florida. All lawsuits would be dropped or renounced, and the result of the hand recount would be honored by all sides.
of course there would be an objection. From the Bush perspective, they have a count with their guy on top. Why in the world would you risk that with any recount?