Yeah, we all know that. I’m just wondering if anyone’s irresponsibly started any speculation on conspiracy theories about Governor Jeb Bush (R—FL)… um… influencing the election turnout in Florida for his brother George. I haven’t heard any, but I bet it’s just a matter of time before someone starts such irresponsible rumors. Hell, maybe I just did it.
Anyway, has anyone heard anything? Jeb’s been a little too low-key, hasn’t he?
I did. And I do. It wouldn’t surprise me in the LEAST if Jeb has something to do with it…
No looks to me that the first group to cry foul play was the Republicans. I’ve wondered, but not out loud, why Jeb was so adamant last night on TV after it was first announced. He kept maintaining that “we have this state”. Did he indeed know something we should have?
I find it terribly ironic that the Republican supporters are already trying to blame someone for their potential loss in Florida. They “blame” the media for jumping the gun. Perhaps Bush should have gone to Florida or Michigan or one of the other swing states last week. Instead he choose to give Bill and Al the finger by visiting Arkansas and Tennesse. Presidental race or pissing contest.
I think the Republicans are simply shocked to find out that they aren’t in such a large majority this morning. I think this campain has brought out the worst in all of them anyway. They can pontificate all they want about “family values” and “giving government back to the people” but half of the country isn’t buying that line of shit. Now they are stunned because they couldn’t just put any old candidate up there to run and think that 8 years of Clinton would sew it up for them. Truth is the pundits are saying just that, the American people voted Gore because they don’t want sweeping changes. They want the Social Security system protected and they don’t want to hear that our country is in debt again.
I’d never suggest that the Bush campain would sanction doing anything illegal. I can’t imagine even “The Shrub” being that stupid. (I love that, who is it here that calls him that?) Nixon did get caught eventually after all. But the Republicans are already acting like a bunch of cry baby sore losers and the votes aren’t even in yet.
Needs2know
Shrub (I usually call him Dubya, but I thought I’d give Needs2Know something to smile about…LOL) seems like a gigantic child jumping up and down in the middle of a toy store screaming, “I WANT IT!!! I WANT IT!!! WWAAAAHHHHH!!!”
No somebody here called him the “Shrub” in another thread. It tickled the hell out of me then and it still does. But then I’ve been calling Al “Al Bore” all along, just not out loud or on this board. Is my man a tight ass or what?!
Needs2know
You know, I wonder why people are theorizing about Republicans when the Democrats have actually started whining? They’re claiming that the Florida ballots were misleading. We’ll see what happens there.
As for a claim that “the American people voted Gore”–I’m stunned as of the last time I checked, the difference in Gore/Bush popular vote is 167,693, or 0.1664%. I don’t see the American people voting clearly for either candidate.
Where have y’all seen George W. acting like a child? I’ve had the TV on all morning (CNN), seen interviews and press conferences, and both sides seem to be taking a wait-and-see attitude. In fact, the only overheated allegations I’ve seen was Jesse Jackson claiming voter fraud and repression of minority votes. I think he’s staging a rally.
Where have Republicans called foul play? It’s the Democrats saying that there were ballot irregularities, especially with the Buchanan factor. The Bush campaign is satisfied with the results and feel they are accurate. It seems to me that you are projecting the wails of the Democrats onto the Republicans.
I think Bush spent 24 of the last 48 hours of the campaign in Florida. Yes, he did visit Arkansas and Tennessee. Good strategy, as he took those states. With a projected total of 271 EC votes, those wins were essential.
Methinks there are some grasping at straws here. Especially on the “Bush whining” claim. WTF??? Why would you complain if it looks like you are going to win? Even they understand the re-count is automatic according to Florida law. No dirty tricks.
I think ‘Shrub’ was the name Molly Ivins gave Bush.
So? He’s still in the lead, no matter how small a margin. We knew it was gonna be close.
I saw that ballot-if you have poor eyesite, as a lot of seniors living in Florida may, it would be hard to read.
I think Jeb was so confident because he knew that out of 500,000 absentee ballots, about 4/5 of them were to registered Reps.
Or was that the overseas ones? Either way, I do know that the absentee ballots were heavily in the margin of being requested by Republicans.
Who is in charge of monitoring elections in the state of Florida? The Attorney General.
Who is Floriday’s Attorney General? Bob Butterworth.
Does Bob Butterworth hold any other positions? Why, funny you should ask. He’s the chairman of Al Gore’s Florida campaign.
So, the person most immediately able to . . . um . . . influence the electionr results happens to chair the Gore campaign in Florida.
So much for conspiracy theories.
Exactly. The reason Jeb and others cried “foul” in giving Florida to Gore was because the polling information they were getting showed a Bush victory.
Why the discrepancy? According to one analyst on the news last night (don’t remember which channel; was constantly surfing between them), the pollsters who predicted Florida for Gore hadn’t taken absentee ballots into consideration. Their exit poll data showed a plurality for Gore, so they felt Gore won the state. In fact, most of the absentee ballots did go Republican, which is why Bush ended up with a slight lead. When the pollsters realized their error, they pulled Florida back into the “unknown” column.
The Bush campaign was justifiably frightened that incorrectly calling Florida for Bush would discourage Republican voters in the West, where important swing states (Colorado, Nevada) and Congressional elections were still going on.
Both, actually. The Republicans in Florida requested 5 times as many absentee ballots as the Democrats; the number of oversea ballots expected is way too small (500,000 compared to 10,000) for that request to have just been for overseas voters.
In any case, Jeb has recused himself from any activity on the Election Commission to forestall the appearance of impropriety.
Just listened to CNN online and Jeb Bush has recused himself from the committee that oversees election results in order to assure no conflict of interest questions.
Of course, he might have already done any damage… then again, maybe not.
Esprix
You two must have been listening to the same webcast. 
Anyway, divemaster said:
Well, duh. It’d be pretty stupid of them to say they aren’t accurate when they’re winning. Even Bush ain’t that dumb.
I think Jeb Bush kept telling people that his brother had won Florida because he that’s he was expected to do. His political career would disappear if he couldn’t deliver that state to his brother in this election. I think a lot of his talk was wishful thinking and not chicanery.
I would expect the Democrats to go hard after him in 2002 when he is up for reelection.
As I was watching the CNN webpage update their Florida votes, Bush kept pulling further away from Gore. I was predicting a return to too close to call before it happened. I don’t think Jeb needed the conspiracy theory explanation to know that it wasn’t solidly for Gore at that point, just a rudimentary knowledge of how the regions vote, and access to the sort of information any governor has about his state.
It also looks to me like the Democrats are doing more whining, although Gore and his advisors are not part of it. They seem to keep repeating their confidence, and are very vague about how they are certain they will win. And they seem to be avoiding any indication of whether or not they will challenge the results.
Personally, I think a pointless and fruitless election challenge will be the perfect counterpoint to the Republicans’ impeachment debacle.
Well, yeah, if you pull a quote out of context. Why would you do that? My point, and I give you enough credit to not have missed it, was to counter those saying that Bush was complaining and acting like a child. I purposely used such an obvious statement, because I was incredulous that people were seeing reactions that did not fit the reality of the situation.
I agree with those who have noticed that Gore himself has been gracious and restrained about this whole thing. Maybe that is because there are plenty of others in his party making a big stink; but I do give him credit. In other instances (the post-impeachment Rose Garden rally comes to mind), he was quite the blowhard.
Actually, Florida’s Secretary of State is in charge of overseeing elections. Butterworth’s attempts at horning in on this task have been not so politely rebuffed by the SOS (don’t know if he/she is a Republican or Democrat).
As mentioned elsewhere, this does not appear to be correct. The person responsible for monitoring the elections is the Secratary of State, a Republican. Butterworth has created some confusion about his role by making many public statements about the recount, but he appears to have no official role.
KSO,
I posted before seeing your post, which made the same point. Sorry.