Posted on 11/16/2004 4:36:34 PM PST by Democracy In Iraq
Counts. Recounts. Lawyers. Charges and counter-charges of "stealing elections". Provisional ballots. Hanging chads. Overvotes. Undervotes. AAAARGGGGHH!
Will elections ever be the same again? Are we doomed to go through this mess in every election for the rest of our lives, particularly one in which the losing candidate is down by a mere infentessimal tiny itsy-bitsy 130,000 votes?!
It's all Al Gore's fault. Just think how different things would be today if he would have decided to spare the country this sort of hardship and division by simply fulfilling his intention to give his concession speech on election night, 2000. No doubt about it, Gore has opened the proverbial Pandora's Box.
Even "reviled and shamed" Richard Nixon did not sink to the level of narcissistic, win-at-any-cost, damn-my-country slime pit that Al Gore jumped into when faced with the same circumstances in Nixon's run against JFK (er, the REAL JFK) in 1960.
And just when we thought Gore had reached rock bottom, out he came with his speech for candidacy into the lunatic asylum, in which he did his best to out-scream Howard Dean and top the Hitler-laden rhetoric of the MoveOn.org morons. (I love saying that--"MoveOn.org morons". Mmmm. That feels good.)
So from now on, in every election and every subsequent result count that one group or another dismisses as fraudulent, for all the losers who get their hopes up while dragging the rest of us into recount after recount after recount, for every divisive charge of stealing the election, for every pundit who questions whether an American President has a mandate (if s/he's even legitimately elected to begin with)--for every contentious election now and forever, America owes its disgust to Al Gore.
Congratualtions Al, you've made it into the history books.
I agree. Perhaps Nixon didn't do a whole lot for the dignity of the presidency, but at least in 1960,when he had a far better case than Gore in 2000, he put the country first and declined to enter a court battle. (There's one example where Gore should have emulated Tricky Dick.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.