September 27, 2004
WHAT A DOOFUS
Carter fears Florida vote trouble: Carter has monitored more than 50 elections worldwide Voting arrangements in Florida do not meet "basic international requirements" and could undermine the US election, former US President Jimmy Carter says (BBC, 9/27/04)
In an article in the Washington Post newspaper, Mr Carter, a Democrat, said that he and ex-President Gerald Ford, a Republican, had been asked to draw up recommendations for changes after the last vote in Florida was marred by arguments over the counting of ballots.Leaving to one side the idiocy of the arguments from the man who blessed the Venezuelan election, does anyone in their right mind think that this is at all helpful to John Kerry? If I didn't know better, I'd suspect that President Carter is preparing to explain why the President's reelection isn't legitimate. Posted by David Cohen at September 27, 2004 11:12 AMMr Carter said the reforms they came up with had still not been implemented.
He accused Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Republican, of trying to get the name of independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader included on the state ballot, knowing he might divert Democrat votes.
He also said: "A fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons."
Mr Carter said Florida Governor Jeb Bush - brother of the president - had "taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the future".
"It is unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral practices in any nation," he added.
"With reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the only recourse will be to focus maximum public scrutiny on the suspicious process in Florida."
Is it a good thing to trumpet the fact that your party's likely voters include 22,000 felons?
Posted by: foos at September 27, 2004 11:35 AMBeyond the fact the Carter is a fool. This is coming from a party that is pulling every trick in the book to keep Ralph Nader off the ballot. It seems clear enough that the standard for whether an election is "fair" is if it produces a victory for the Democratic Party.
Posted by: Brandon at September 27, 2004 12:06 PMIt's all fine and good, except Florida might well be a blowout this year, with six or seven percentage points seperating Bush from Kerry.
Then what, peanut boy?
Posted by: H.D. Miller at September 27, 2004 12:13 PMCan we bring those people up from the Carcas restaurant who heckled Carter after his claim the Venezuelan election was clean and have them heckle Jimmy as he tours the polling sites on Election Day?
Posted by: John at September 27, 2004 12:33 PMHey, ya gotta love HD Miller's comment! "What then, peanut boy?" Let's hope FL is a blowout for the sake of sanity. And John too has a great point. Jimmy Carter is the guy who put his oh-so-impressive stamp of approval on Venezuela's election. That was the sealer for me. Can anyone possibly believe that Chavez was elected fairly? Please, Mr. Carter, go back to peanuts.
Posted by: D. L. Meadows at September 27, 2004 12:48 PMFlorida is full of broken glass Republicans -- who would crawl over broken glass to vote for GWB -- because the 2000 call of the state for Al Gore by the media before the polls closed in the panhandle deprived many of those voters of their vote; they simply decided that they would best stay home since their vote would be meaningless. That is not happening this time.
Posted by: Morrie at September 27, 2004 1:22 PM"Actually, ah beat Ronal' Reagan in 1980. They jus' counted the votes wrong."
Posted by: AC at September 27, 2004 1:47 PMI figure we are about two weeks away from the first article claiming that the re-election of President Bush would violate international law.
Posted by: Peter B at September 27, 2004 2:54 PMCarter will probably be cited by Kofi as a primary source for his statement that the Iraq war is "illegal".
I also note that the Carter Center will not be doing anything in Florida on Nov. 2 - they are too busy (according to Rush). But Jimmy is never too busy to slime around, eh?
Let's see Jimmy explain Bush winning WI, PA, MN, NM, and possibly OR.
The GOP should run ads in FL highlighting Carter's op-ed. Side by side with his endorsement of Chavez.
Posted by: jim hamlen at September 27, 2004 9:44 PM"I'd suspect that President Carter is preparing to explain why the President's reelection isn't legitimate."
I'd just like to hear him explain why we should consider his presidency legitimate.
"I figure we are about two weeks away from the first article claiming that the re-election of President Bush would violate international law."
Then what, Peter? The UN will set up a receivership government in Washington to rule us until new elections can be held. They'll send over 50,000 bureacrats and peacekeepers. There'll be orgies, then someone will get a papercut and they will pack up and leave.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at September 28, 2004 7:13 AM