I was reading a book by Michael Moore this week, Stupid White Men. Found it unreal and amazing to read and was wondering (as an Australian) is it really that bad?
How he ‘took’ the election sounds on par with how Hitler took the German elections that made him Chancellor. The only difference is … where Bush jr. prevented people from voting with ridiculous laws, Hitler had people violently preventing. Still, it’s of much the sameness, no?
Any thoughts?
Are we to take your sig literally in this case? 
Bush didn’t prevent anyone from voting with any laws. How could he? He wasn’t an elected official yet. Furthermore, that would have been the role of the Congress in any case.
Ok … according to the book I read, his brother Governer Jeb Bush of Florida organised a purge of the electoral roll (felons are not entitled to vote apparantly) and in the process culled many names off the registered voter list who were entitled to vote.
That did happen in several cases, but a simple phone call to the County Elections Board would have fixed it, they were not able to get through on the phone. The voter was able to vote provisionally, so their status could be checked out in later days and their vote counted or thrown out, but the elections workers were not trained by the County Elections Supervisors well enough to tell the voter this little tidbit. In South Florida, the county elections staff were Democrats.
I have not read Moore’s book, but I would think it contains hyperbole and partisan politics presented as fact.
Moving this to Great Debates.
Michael Moore is a talented movie-maker, but he’s noted for dishonesty. Here’s an analysis of the huge problems with Stupid White Men.
Adolf Hitler, contrary to popular myth, first arrived on the scene in 1924 in the infamous “Beer Hall Revolt” in Munich, Bavaria. At the time, he was effectively a lieutentant to General Erich von Ludendorff. They seized parliament and announced themselves head of not only Bavaria, but all of Germany.
Hitler appointed himself “Chancellor of Germany”, and appointed General von Ludendorff head of the German Army.
There was talk of marching on Berlin. THey retired for the night, and the next day, loyal troops of the Bavarian Reichswehr stormed Hitler’s offices and the “Beer Hall Revolt” was over and Hitler was thrown in jail for 8 months after giving a rousing speech at his trial.
He wrote the first volume of the Nazi bible, Mein Kampf, whilst in the prison-fortress of Landsburg.
The shootout by the Bavarian police and Hitler’s stormtroopers numbered some 3,000 men on the streets of Munich apparently.
All things being equal, I think it’s safe to say that President Bush’s ascension to power was infinitely less violent, less upheaving, and less turbulent than Adolf Hitler’s was.
In this context, the very title of this thread is an insult to any reasonable student of history.
Errm, that was indeed the Beer Hall Putsch.
He later got elected. Legitimately I might add.
Hitler, if he’s prepared.
I’d be at the head of any queue to slag of Bush and his policies but to equate him to Hitler in any way is just silly.
I’m also a huge fan of Moore but his work should be viewed with as much as a critical eye as every other partisan writer. Unfortunately by even mentioning his name your OP will be dismissed by a lot of people here as the very mention of Moore makes them go on the out and out defense.
I’m just chuckling at the idea of “out and out defense.”
“Oh, yeah? Say that again and I’ll put on MORE kevlar!”
I think out and out OFFENSE would be a better description of the reaction some people have to Moore.
Than would be better Bryan 
My point would be that some people are IMO OTT when it comes to Moore. I realise the man himself can be OTT himself BTW.
Ridiculous comparison.
And by the way, the comparioson falls apart on the simple fact that the NSDAP was legitimately elected as a majority into the 6th Reichstag (1932). It recieved 13,779,017 votes. The SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland) trailed behind with only 7,959,712 votes.
I would like you to clearly and succinctly demonstrate through cites and such how 2,909,653 votes were “taken”. You are implying massive election fraud on the part of the NSDAP in 1932.
This would mean a form of absolution of guilt from the German people. Indeed, if this is true, the German electorate of the early 1930ies were ultimately not responsible for the Nazis accent to power since the NSDAP stole what was not theirs: the right to form a government.
Let’s be clear about this. The Weimar Republic in some sense, undid itself. Yes, ultimately the NSDAP got rid of not just the Weimar election mechanism, but the whole constitution as such. But the NSDAP had never made a secret of their goals to overthrow the Republic. After the failure of the Putsch Hitler vowed to do it through “legitmate” means. And, as flabbergasting as it seems, he did!
The 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court in the 2000 election, on the other hand, overstepped their constitutional bounderies. And yet the core of that majority are devoted to a literal interpretation of the US Constitution. In a sense, they are less honest then the brutish ruffians of the NSDAP. Still, I’d choose 50,000,000 Rebulicans to a handful of Nazis any day…
These ongoing Hitler/Bush comparisons are getting tedious, shallow and pathetic.
Slight hijack, but related to your quote, Hugo Chavez managed to get himself elected in Venezuela, after failing at a coup. Some things never change.
The fact of the matter is that the election was Gore’s to lose. Clinton was still pretty popular and Bush wasn’t exactly wowing voters with his mastery the spolen word. Dems can blame dirty tricks from the Pubs all they want, but if Gore had simply won his own home state he’d be the president right now.
I thought me and my fellow Greens were responsible for Gore’s loss. Can the dems make up their mind, please, so I know if I’m to blame or not?
Hitler: Vegetarian
Bush: Carnivore
Hitler: Short
Bush: Tall
Hilter: Mustache
Bush: No Mustache
Hitler: Executed 6 million jews
Bush: Didn’t execute 6 million jews
Now, can we please fucking stop this pathetic crap already?
Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with Florida Statute 201.141(4), which spurred the first recount when the results were within 1/2 of 1 percent. And Then Gore filed a protest under Florida Statute 102.166(2000), a requested a recount in four counties, Volusia, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade.
Then why don’t you see FS 102.112, and read what they says about the November 14th deadline. The current version reads,
Note the use of the terms “must” and “shall”. Those do not give wiggle room, like the term “should”.
Note what happened next. The Florida Supreme Court set the deadline for vote submission at Nov 26. In direct defiance of the established Florida Statutes. THAT is what I call Legislating from the Bench. (The US Supreme Court apparently agreed with me, since they vacated this decision, essentially allowing the election to run under the existing laws in place.).
Follow me here, it gets tricky.
On Nov 26, the date the FL Supreme Court set, Bush was still in the lead and delared the winner. Again. But the next day, Nov 27, Gore contested the results AGAIN, in Leon County Circuit Court, stating there were illegal votes. his request was denied, for insufficient proof. Gore appealed back to his buddies, the FL Supremes, but they kicked it back, supporting the lack of proof cited by the lower court for Nassau and Palm Beach, but said to do a manual recount of the “No Voted Registered” ballots, about 9000 of them in Maimi Dade, under FS 102.168(3)©
. The Florida Supremes then said, essentially, that their Nov 26 deadline wasn’t really a dealine, and that votes found after that date could be added, too, in Palm Beach.
The gist of the US Supreme Court decision hinged on rejecting the FL Supremes re-writing of the laws, Article 2, Section 1, clause 2 of the US Constitution, which says,
Legislature sets the rules, not Judicial.
The US Supreme Court decision can be seen here (PDF).
Their decision? Legislature makes the laws. Judges don’t.
Bush. He’ bigger and jogs regularly. Hitler was strung out.
Wait, Young Hitler or Old Hitler?
GWB today or in his college days?
