[QUOTE=Inigo MontoyaHelp me understand this. Because currently I show a number of states not yet given to one candidate or the other. Iowa isn’t even Red yet, and then there’s absentees, etc. in states that were just barely won by Bush.[/QUOTE]
Once Kerry saw that he lost Ohio, it was over. That puts Bush over 270 EVs.
It may be hyperbole, but I wasn’t joking. This is in my opinion without question the biggest mistake by the electorate in the history of mankind.
My conscience is clear at least. I worked my ass off and did everything within my power and we did win in my state (For whatever it’s friggin worth. Maybe I should have spent my weekends in Ohio).
Other than that, all I can say is that I’m appalled at the American people for what they’ve done. I know that some of you won’t like my saying that but I’m sorry, it’s how I feel at the moment. I love this country and I love its people (both red and blue states) but I find the thinking of many of them to be simply unfathomable. That’s not meant as a putdown or a criticism, just a simple statement of the fact that I am genuinely puzzled by this behaviour.
Yowch. OK, I shouldn’t have defended you. I look pretty stupid.
You think this election was worse than the Germans electing Hitler? Given that you’re saying it with a straight face, I don’t think the Hitler analogy is gratuitous.
Good for Kerry. He saw that the disadvantages to the country of dragging this out, and did the right thing.
And there are no excuses. No recounts, no hanging chads, no winning the EC but not the popular vote, no politically motivated security alerts, no cancelling the elections, no violence or widespread fraud. Nader wasn’t even a spoiler, and there was a higher-than-usual turnout. And, thank God, no terrorist attacks to disrupt things.
Bush just won. Fair and square and everyone there.
Regards,
Shodan
I might make an exception for Hitler if indeed the Germans had elected him. [URL=http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0403a.asp]Not So.[/UR
L]
So Hitler was opposed by nearly 70% of Germans in the first election and neraly 65% in the runoff.
So where did Hitler win a legitimate election?
To add to your puzzlement (and maybe the sense of surreal); Dallas Texas (county) elected an openly gay, hispanic, female Sheriff. 
I agree wholeheartedly. Kudos to Senator Kerry for his statesmanlike decision.
Sadly, I fear the Bush voters will not change their minds. If the mess we were in in Iraq as of Nov. 2 was not enough to make them vote against him, if the evidence that the reasons given for going to war were completely false was not enough to make them vote against him, if Patriot I was not enough to make them vote against him, if the tax cut whose benefits went almost entirely to the richest 2% was not enough to make them vote against him, if the loss of jobs and reversal of the projected suplus were not enough to make them vote against him, if his putting industry lobbyists in charge of “regulating” the industries was not enough to make them vote against him…
When Hitler was elected, the German populace didn’t have much of an idea what was coming down the pipes. Christ, TIME magazine called him Man of The Year in 1938.
Americans knew exactly what Bush was capable of, and elected him anyway for reasons I have been unable to fathom.
The world (IMO, of course) just got a whole lot shittier. If Bush could just confine himself to screwing up your little country, I was find this a tad less bothersome. But his actions affect people around the world who had no say in his election.
shit.
Please don’t blame liberalism for what the neo-Marxist American left has done to mutilate the word. It used to be a noble label. Liberal and liberty are from the same root — Latin “liber”: freedom. A liberal is a man or woman who champions the rights of individuals, and fights for freedom. And it’s not that conservatives have taken up the cause, either. The modern American neo-conservatives have usurped the notion and made it into a slogan, even as they pass ever more onerous prohibitions against the pursuit of happiness.
I don’t understand why Kerry conceding or not conceding has anything to do with dragging it out. The end of an election is when the votes have been counted, so it has nothing to do with the candidates dragging it out, barring legal action like in 2000. Do the people stating that Kerry is a good man for not dragging it out mean that they’re happy he isn’t going to sue or something like that?
A concession is not legally binding. It’s just one candidate calling the other to give congratulations, or a candidate thanking everyone for their hard work despite their loss. If Kerry got enough electoral votes after conceding (hypothetical – we all know it won’t happen), he would still be the President-Elect. I’m not sure why people always make such a big deal about candidates when one concedes (or doesn’t conced) after a race. It doesn’t mean anything.
Yes, that’s exactly it.
Is this concession in any way binding, on the off chance the provisional and absentee ballot counts in Ohio reveal a Kerry victory in that state?
Maybe you could ask the people killed and wounded and suffering in Iraq what they think was worse for them: This criminal in the White House who ordered the invasion of their nation, hence ordered the killing, woundings, sufferings, destructions and the ongoing violence combined with the ongoing occupation,
or
see that the majority of US voters now clearly demonstrated their open approval of the crimes committed against the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and all the crimes and violations of International Law and teh Geneva Coventions by the criminal in the White House.
Well, you get what you deserve. You can only hope that you won’t get a repetition of 9/11 in one form or another. I have some feeling that in case such a thing comes to happen the empathy of the world community shall be far less then the overwhelming support and sympathy the world showed the first time. This sentiment was already present before this election because of the crimes of Bush and crew. It is almost visible after this clear cut approval of the US electorate of the crimes of Bush and his crew.
Salaam. A
I think some chose Bush on the basis of his stands on (in this order of importance) abortion, stem cell research, and gay marriage. For some, these issues (esp. abortion) outweigh everything else.
I think some people voted for Bush on the basis of appearences. Not the record, not the policies, but which man they felt they could trust, and/or which man seemed to them to be “a good man”. Their feeling about whom to trust or who was “more good” was often just that, a feeling.
I think some people voted for Bush because of bitterness against Kerry’s anti-Viet Nam War activities, esp. his testimony before Congress. They may not approve of Bush’s avoiding service, but evidently, that’s less important to them.
Completely besides the point. Is it your contention that the US invasion of Iraq was worse than the event that started WWII? That is what was being proposed.
OK – I have a report from another individual that suggests that shipping Scotch may prove problematic, but we can figure something out if that’s indeed a problem…
Maybe thes people should go all cheerfully to Iraq and wait for the “sock and awe” and the “you ain’t seen nothign yet” bombs of the “good man” to be dropped on their heads.
The USA elected a “good man” who was exposed as a lunatic mass murderer.
While I saw it coming, the fact that it is now reality does ot make it any less true that this says everything about the true character of the populations of the USA.
Salaam. A
Cripes, that was one heck of a day. Which day was that now, Rick…July 19th, 1352? November 23rd, 1352?
Anyway, yeah. I can’t remember who it was that said it, but a character on The West Wing (?) once said that “the problem with democracy is that sometimes your guy loses.” Three years ago 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks in the very state I live in. Two years ago my mom was diagnosed with liver cancer. On a national and personal level respectively, both days were much, much worse for me. Really, we’re in the same boat we were in before the election. The only things that have changed are that the partisans here seem more partisan, and that Rick is going to be a little (more? :p) drunk soon.