Collusion: The Day Before the 2000 Election

A Publius Essay | 18 December 2003 | Publius

[Publius]

This is my first Publius Essay in 2 years.

[Publius]

Ping.

[Eala]

Wow! Great!!!!

[Sans-Culotte]

Better than any script The West Wing has come up with. And this script could be stranger than fiction.

[international american]

" You just say it was a bureaucratic snafu. An innocent little mistake. Somebody forgot that Florida has two closing times. (pauses"

Good shot! 77% of CBS reporting on Bush is negative!!

[Paul Ross]

[HardStarboard]

Fascinating...Bump

[Publius]

Hey, thanks. It's all for the greater glory of the Puget Sound Chapter.

[international american]

That 77% negatve on Bush was in the Washington Post, not the Washington Times.

[Publius]

I'm fascinated by the fact that Dean of Vermont is so similar to Bartlett of New Hampshire. It's as though someone in Hollywood were writing the script for the 2004 election.

[cars for sale]

the real trigger of action was ELIAN....that put in place the "players" in Fla.

[MHGinTN]

Wow! The DNC version of the Star Chamber ... the Sludge Pit. Well done, Publius! I have a notion you're onto something with this. I wonder how Terry McAwful will react to this glimpse of his methodologies? Watch your back, Publius, you may be too close to the reality.

[CAR913]

I hate to play devil's advocate, because I don't think the networks are above pulling a stunt like this (and the DNC certainly isn't), but what about Fox? They called FL for Gore too.

Of course, Fox's call came a few minutes after the other outlets issued theirs. It's possible that the suits at Fox thought one of the other networks knew something they didn't, and they just bowed to the pressure to keep up with the competition.

[Publius]

Help me out here. Do you think that the Elian debacle put Florida in the Republican column so thoroughly that the DNC needed to intervene to tip the vote? Do you think that Gore would have held Florida had the Elian mess not happened?

[Publius]

The data for the call was provided by VNS, and it was up to the networks to "interpret" that data and issue a judgment. Fox News was certainly out of the loop on this one, and they assumed that the VNS data could be considered reliable.

They got suckered.

[bobsatwork]

Well done.

[Publius]

Well, don't ping McAuliffe, for chrissakes! I hope he doesn't lurk here!

The next thing, Terry Lenzner will be snooping around my dumpster and discovering that I'm a classical music addict.

Oh, the shame!

[1066AD]

I was watching in y2k when ABC called Floriduh, either Jennings or Stephanoupolous remarked a few moments later that the polls were still open in the panhandle, then they both laughed and one said something like "there's no one up there anyway". I don't think I've watched ABC news since.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Looks great. The "Thurmond and Lott" reference though - if you want to be historically accurate - took place after the 2000 election. Right?

[Publius]

During the impeachment, there was a "Salon" article (by Joe Conason, I believe) about Lott's homosexuality. Lott became more cooperative with the Democrats immediately thereafter.

Likewise, during the impeachment a planted story about Thurmond's black daughter made Thurmond suddenly more cooperative.