Election 2000 Superstars & Winners

Great Debates
1

[sub](This isn’t really a debate, but it’s about the election, sorta, and since all the election-heads and election threads are here, this would be the best place for it, I think )[/sub]

A lot of otherwise obscure or little-known-to-the-larger-population folks were made into celebrities by this mess…lots of 'em. I’m interested to know who everyone’s favorites are.

For me, there are 2, the first of which seems to be the most popular among everyone I’ve talked to IRL:

Greta Van Sustern: “The oddly cute blond legal analyst on CNN with the crooked mouth” - she’s just cool as hell, and all the guys I know wanna do her. She seems very bright, and very real.

David Boise - I want him to be my daddy. The guy just could not be smarter, more articulate, and yet relaxed and cool if he tried. He just seems to be insanely competent to me, while being deeply real with a great sense of humor. Kind of a goofy Atticus Finch. Him not making Attorney General may be my biggest bummer of the way this turned out.

It’s been tons of fun trying to figure out which side the supposedly non-partisan journalists fall on, and discovering all these wacky cable news programs. I’m going to have to check them out in a few months when this all calms down to see what they do most of the time.

And that brings me to non-presidential winners of this one, and that would have to be the cable news outlets. You know they have just been creaming their jeans every hour this went on.

One final special mention… I have to send a big “You GO, girl!” to the woman on CNN who has been covering the Bush campaign. Her name escapes me right now, but I have to say I love CNN for her…she is middle aged, very overweight, and hey, not much to look at to begin with. She is just as marginally pleasing to the eye as MANY of the men who are out there, and I for one am tickled pink that CNN decided to give this woman an on-camera job based on her ability, not on her face and figure. <fist raised> (Although I wonder whose decision it is that she always be filmed standing in three-quarter profile… she always looks a bit uncomfortable, like she’s not allowed to move or something.)

So…anyone care to chime in?

stoid

2

or rather, it has honed an already existing talent of mine: the ability to spot a Republican at 100 paces.

I cannot explain it, and I concede that it makes absolutely no logical sense. But I have a truly uncanny knack for knowing which side of the political fence a person falls on just by looking at them. I’m not always right, of course, but I’m right more than mere chance would dictate, and I’m especially good at knowing who the conservatives are.

I was always pretty good at it, but staring at partisans all day long for the past 6 weeks has really sharpened it. Now I’m doing it almost like a party trick.

(Me at the grocery store to cashier): your’e a Democrat, aren’t you?
Clerk: Yeah! How’d you know?
Me to bagger: “And you’re a Republican, right?”
Bagger: yeah, what gave me away?

It’s weird.

stoid

3

Actually, Stoid, Boies was pretty well-known before this, as the lawyer on the Microsoft case. (He is, in fact, the daddy of a law school classmate of mine, who is also a heck of a nice guy.) Maybe he’ll get more press on the cases he tries, but he would have anyway for the high-profile cases (like Microsoft, etc.). And Greta’s been pretty well-known, too, but I guess only to those who watch CNN.

Who/what had profiles raised? The Vote-a-tronic (Vote-o-matic?) machine.
Chads.
Butterfly ballots.
The fact that in the last year of the 20th century America uses 19th century technology to vote.
Katherine Harris.
Jeb Bush (outside of Florida and political circles).
The Supremes (both US and FLA).
Justice Brennan. :wink:

My prediction? Except for political junkies and trivia nuts (the latter category may actually be over-represented on the SDMB, believe it or not ;)), I don’t think anyone’s going to remember Katherine Harris, etc. in two or three years. While Greta’s profile was raised, once everyone stops watching CNN, it’ll go back down.

[beavis]
Heh, heh, heh, he said, “Go down.”
[/beavis]

I’m frankly disgusted by the whole mess, particularly the way it was handled in the press. Hey, people, nothing was happening for days - did we really need 24-hour coverage of that nothing, and entire sections of the newspaper devoted to reporters giving away their biases? I don’t think so. And I think because people had so much to say about so little, much of the intelligent discussion (always excepting the discussions here, of course) was lost in the stream of pablum. sigh

Hmm…sorry, I guess that was a bit of a hijack.

4

Er… I meant for that last parenthetical to go at the end of the sentence. That was my intention. Consider the previous post a “pregnant”, or possibly “dimpled”, post.

5

I don’t suppose we could convince you to include a BARF ALERT before you post stuff that is worse than your usual leftist propaganda.

Just guess leftist all the time and you will have a 90% rate of success.

I can’t explain it either, but I am constantly amazed at just how biggoted you can admit to being, all the while claiming to be so enlightened. From your sweeping generalizations to your republidar, you constantly undermine your own claims of fairness and of having an open mind.

If Gore told you the sky was green you would be on here in a flash claiming against all reason that the dastardly Republicans had a conspiracy going to hide the true color of the sky from the people. All the while you would never bother to walk outside, take a look and actually think for yourself.

6

My dirty little secret: I used to be a CNN/MS-NBC/C-NBC/C-Span junkie. Watched all the time. Hardball, Meet the Press, Crossfire, etc . . . About a year ago I quit almost cold turkey. Why? I would like to leave my blood pressure at a healhy level, thank you. I would just get madder and madder watching this stuff. Spin, spin, spin. Crazy Republicans spinning things to make themselves look good; Crazy Democrats spinning things to make them look good. Nobody grasps or cares about of the facts. They just want their side to look right. Ugh, I couldn’t stand it. Thank you so much Florida Legislature for putting us into this mess and bringing back my addiction! I actually watched all of the Supreme Court hearings (have a t.v. at work).

Stoidela: I have always loved Greta Van Sustern. She always seems to have a wonderful grasp of both sides of legal issues (As she should, being a lawyer). Always fair.

How about that Statistician who couldn’t speak English very well and who testified for the Gore campaign? The poor guy tried so hard to keep the straw men out of his way.

Freedom2: Lighten up for Christ’s sake! Bigoted? This isn’t the Pit.

7

My winners:

The Associated Press - As a journalist, let me be the first to tell you, they kicked everyone’s ass. On how many networks did you see someone saying “the Associated Press is reporting …,” and how many times did they say it?

Ted Olson - Bush’s attorney went up against the giant, David Boies, and was excellent.

David Boies - You can see why he’s considered one of the most feared litigators in the business. Extremely intelligent and articulate, but comes off as likeable rather than a know-it-all, high-priced, big-city lawyer.

That judge whose name escapes me who is the chairman of the Palm Beach County canvassing board - Yeah; I disagreed (and so did the U.S. Supreme Court) with how they changed their standards numerous times. But he, a Democrat, came across as someone genuinely interested in doing the right, fair thing. The harder standard they eventually took on dimpled chads dismayed the Gore camp, I think, who were expecting many more votes out of PBC.

FoxNews Channel and MSNBC - These two networks completely emerged for me during this. I have been dismayed at the blatant left-leaning that has developed in some at CNN, and the major networks (particularly CBS and, to a less egregious extent, ABC) are a joke in this regard.

This has helped me realize how profoundly the major networks under-report the news.

FoxNews is definitely slightly right of center, which I find entertaining because it’s so unique in television news. MSNBC is right down the middle, and broke a lot of the big news with their guests. Great, hard-working anchors and reporters, and extremely impressive work.

"Hardball with Chris Matthews" and “The O’Reilly Factor” - I am now a complete addict to both shows. Matthews seems like he would be such a cool guy to hang out with. He recognizes it’s all politics and actually manages to have fun with it while remaining balanced and recognizing that it’s serious business.

O’Reilly has no tolerance for b.s. and manages to be a bit cynical and curmudgeonly while still likeable and thought-provoking.

Pat Caddell - A former Democratic pollster, contributor to NBC’s “The West Wing,” and self-professed lifelong liberal, Caddell was a regular guest on “Hardball,” and was unceasing in expressing his dismay and disgust for what the Gore folks were doing.

The knee-jerk attacks from The Left couldn’t be done, because he was from The Left! He just thought the whole thing was illegal, unfair and undignified. It was a beautiful thing to watch Gore’s spinners not be able to say much in response.

Freedom2 Thanks for helping poor hot oil on all the SDMB Democrats who were scaling the walls. :wink: Talk about hopelessly outnumbered. I know how they felt at The Alamo now.

But I noticed in the last week or so, more people began to chime in here in this forum with a sense that this had gone too far and too long.

Stoidela - If I hadn’t read some of it, typed with a straight face, I wouldn’t have believed it.

8

Um… Free? Dude? The “Mean Ol’ Demakrats is Pickin’ on Us Republikins” thread is over here.

9

You have to forgive Freedom2. He’s a “compassionate conservative”.

(“Compassionate” meaning that it’s okay to jeer at senior citizens for being easily confused, or to call your opponent “sore losers,” or to dismiss blacks’ claims of discrimination as whining, or…)

10

My all-time favorite talking head guys, Shields and Gigot, as seen on PBS Lehrer report. Bright, funny, articulate, and, Lord love a duck, unfailingly polite and mutually respectful. Thier Friday night summary of events is something I look forward to. Gigot works for Wall Street Journal, the Pravda of Mammon, yet he seems to have a fair amount of wit about him. Must have had one of those humor implants.

Molly Ivins for the Texas eye view of it all, she’s a hoot and if you don’t know who she is, you’re missing something (you can find her on Drudge).

Stoidela, Dark Mistress of the Board, for putting up the good fight. As Byron has it “She walks in beauty as the night, and kicks them in the balls if they got it coming…” Or something like that.

Millosarian, Scylla, et. al for consistently providing such great big juicy target opportunities.

Freedom2 'cause, awwww, what the hell, its almost Christmas.

See you guys here when “Landslide” George steps on his pecker (and he will. You know he will. Might as well start cringing now.)

11

Whatever I am, I am not a Republican.
I just see Gore stealing the election and rabble rousing with Jesse Jackson and others who can’t accept that Gore lost.

This pisses me off. IRL I am much calmer and middle of the road, but around here I just get all my buttons pushed:)

12

“If the term ‘conservative’ has to be modified by the adjective ‘compassionate’, isn’t that claiming that conservatism isn’t an inherently compassionate philosophy? Isn’t that like saying ‘an honest thief’ or ‘a moderate drinker’?”

13

:smiley:
Sorry about that.

Um, I thought I could spot 'em at 100 paces?

No, seriously, I just get tired of the gratuitous shots taken on both sides of the issue…
(Hmmm… “Gratuitous shots?” Sounds like fun!)

Aww, c’mon Milo; you guys weren’t outnumbered.

Just outgunned.
<d&r>

14

Much like…

Honest democrat…?:slight_smile:

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Damn xenophon41, you slipped in there. (Everyone mentally wedge my post in right before his)

…and there is no way you have our side out gunned. :slight_smile:

16

Honest, man; they were all registered!!!

17

He was pretty adorable, I’d forgotten about him!

18

Are you serious?? Can you tell me where to write my fan letter? And yes, I mean it. I think he rocks completely. My hero.

You know it’s true if even * milo * says it!

Yeah, right before it died forever. I’m thinking we’ll never see one used again in this country, and even so, there will be hundreds of laws passed all over on how to deal with them. Lots of gummint wheel spinning.

I also predict there will be amajor discussion of spending many federal dollars to tighten up the coting systems around the country. Don’t know how far it will get, could be very expensive.

I heard something on the radio yesterday here in LA about our city council discussing a $100 million investment in upgrading our system…we here in LA are punch ballot folk. For the moment.

And as far as Greta is concerned… I dunno. People like her, I think shes going to go far…

19

I’m not entirely sure what this means, but I will assume it is positive, for the spirit of the thread. :slight_smile:

I pretty much agree with everyone/thing else you came up with, although not always for the same reasons, except Ted Olsen. I am not the only one who thinks he looked extra weak next to Boise. His argument prevailed, but I don’t think it had much to do with his ability to present it.

stoid

20

:o (supposed to be blushing, I don’t think it’s very effective)

True. My Dark Mistress-ness would be wasted without them.
**
[/QUOTE]

Don’t go far!