November 5, 2004

STAND IN THE PLACE WHERE YOU ARE:

In Victory's Glow: Despite early exit polls to the contrary, the President took Florida, Ohio and, in the end, the election. How the Bush team orchestrated its nail-biting win and woke up to another four years in charge (NANCY GIBBS, Nov. 03, 2004, TIME)

Tuesday was the night the ghosts died in the Bush White House. There was the ghost of his last campaign, which Bush lost among voters but won in the court. There was the ghost of his father's last campaign, when even winning a war was not enough to earn a second term. And then there was the ghost of Tuesday afternoon, when the entire Bush campaign team was haunted by the possibility that they had got it all wrong, as the first exit polls came in and nothing, but nothing, was going their way.

When it was finally over, the President who had become a radical champion of democracy's power to change the world became the living symbol of how it works. He made his decisions and moved on; the voters made theirs, in one of the most extraordinary displays of political passion seen in a generation. About 120 million voted, 15 million more than in 2000, with Bush beating Senator John Kerry by about 51% to 48.5%. He became the first President since 1988 to win a majority of the popular vote, he gained seats in both houses of Congress, and for good measure, he knocked off not just the Democratic nominee but the party's Senate leader as well. The love-hate presidency of George W. Bush was neither an accident of ideology nor a product of these times. Asked as he left the Crawford, Texas, polling station about the polarized feelings he inspires in voters, Bush replied, "I take that as a compliment. It means I'm willing to take a stand."

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 5, 2004 8:46 PM
Comments

"There was the ghost of his last campaign, which Bush lost among voters but won in the court."

Like hell. The State of Florida, once freed from AlGore's nuisance lawsuit and the attempted rewrites of election by its own judges, certified that Bush had won the vote in Florida, and MSM-sponsored inspections of ballots confirmed it. Don't these people ever give up? Or is Time's reporter just primping for a job at CBS?

Posted by: Axel Kassel at November 5, 2004 9:25 PM

Nobody kicks a dead dog. Bush is very much alive, certainly more so than Lurch.

Posted by: ratbert at November 5, 2004 9:57 PM

Ms. Gibbs probably needed to steady herself by writing the first paragraph before she had the stomach to write the second one.

Posted by: John at November 5, 2004 11:42 PM

Let's put an end to these liee.

Lie 1.

The court didn't select Bush. Gore et al attempted a coup d'etat with the complicity of the media and Florida Supreme Court. The hanging chad issue was bogus. There was a cartoon around them, I wish I could find it, of a typical Palm Beach voter who couldn't figure out the simple ballot, but could play 30 or 40 bingo cards at the same time. It was hilarious.

Clinton had already set the stage for the coup by changing the way the military had tradionally voted. They were no longer allowed to vote at the military bases and absentee ballots were no longer permitted to be delivered in bulk.

Given the Bush's lead was so small, the Gore legal eagles descended and started to muddy the waters. Remember the districts in question were Democrat strongholds and the ballots were designed by the Democrat machine. Katherine Harris was villified for following procecures.

The disgraceful application of the Clinton docrine of Delay, Deny & Demonize was in full swing until the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Their decision was NOT that Bush won. Their decision was that if any Florida districts were to be recounted, then ALL Florida districts must be recounted.

Knowing that wouldn't give them the results they wanted, the Gore spoilers gave up. Four or five recounts by various "non-partisan" groups all showed that Bush won by a very small margin.

Lie 2.

We don't know what the total popular vote was in 2000 because Davis ordered that the count of absentee ballots be stopped when Gore's lead was greater than the uncounted absentee ballots. There were about a million of them. The same happened in other states with far fewer ballots. In case, since most absentee ballots tend toward Republicans, it's fair to say that Gore probably didn't win the popular vote.

The election Tuesday, where all the votes were counted, showed a huge majority of the popular was for the Republican candidate, Mr. Bush.

I'm so tired of Republicans sitting on panels and letting these lies go unchallenged.

Posted by: erp at November 6, 2004 6:53 AM
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