Chris Matthews: Final tally gives Bush legitimacy

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 11/18/2001 | Chris Matthews

[Pokey78]

Washington -- The real loser of the 2000 presidential election was hardball politics.

George W. Bush thought he would lose the limited recount ordered by Florida's Supreme Court, so the Republican presidential candidate got the U.S. Supreme Court to stop it. The result was a victory in the Electoral College that gave Al Gore backers reason to question Bush's legitimacy.

[sweetliberty]

But still nobody has answered the question: "What about the excluded military ballots?" And it seems that no consideration is given is given to the hundreds, perhaps over a thousand Bush voters in the western panhandle, in the central time zone, who left the lines at the polls because the networks prematurely called the state of Florida for Gore. I have yet in this past year to hear one single democrat say, "shouldn't THOSE disenfrancised voters be considered?"

[Piquaboy]

If Chris along with a lot of other people would have read the constitution they would have discovered that the Florida Supreme Court was completely out of line by setting policy.

[Benrand]

Had Bush not gotten the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the limited recounts ordered by Florida's high court, he might have won the election by anywhere from 225 to 495 votes. Even diehard Democrats would have been forced to concede his victory

Of COURSE they would hvae, sure Chris...will Matthews now concede GWB's victory???

[alnick]

Carol Roberts in Palm Beach county, despite all the "controls" that were in place, would have found the votes to put Gore over the top.

Yeah, the Mrs. Roper lookalike Carol Roberts in Palm Beach County and "If-there's-any-doubt-err-on-our-side" Ginzburger in Broward. It's amazing that they didn't get away with it.

[quesera]

Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy, will you shut up! your commentaries don't mean anything.

GW Bush *is* our President, was, since right after the election, and will be for another 3 hopefully 7 years. Nothing you and your fellow libs can do to change that. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

[Cicero]

George Bush fought the recount because he thought he would lose? Maybe he fought it because, as the Supreme Court determined, in accordance with well established Constitutional Law and the laws of the State of Florida, the recount was illegal.

Who can doubt that if Gore had won, Bush would have graciously conceded, with the same graciousness and decency he has invariably shown since his election? Some Yuppies just can't stand to lose, because they think they are Entitled.

[Let's Roll]

Very nice summary, alnick.

[KeepTheEdge]

No, the corruption of the Ballot Box has culpability from both sides of the aisle.

In this age of technology and accuracy, we see the voting for our National Leadership is still mired in the 'stone-age.'

This is not by accident, but by design.

[mlocher]

yet another liberal who wants control over our lives. now that matthews has made his statement, who could possibly argue that bush should not be president?

[GOPJ]

ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS, and FOX gave the election to Bush.

When the networks called the race early in Florida, the democrats quit double punching ballots.

Democrats didn't invalidate enough Bush votes to steal the election. The liberals did it to themselves...

[RobFromGa]

The real loser of the 2000 presidential election was hardball

Should've stopped there, the rest is more justification for the incessant Dimwit blather by none other than the host of "Hardball" and one of its stupidest practitioners- Ms. Chrissie Matthews"

The guy is so partisan and so stupid that only idiots can still bear to listento him, kind of like a McLame light.

[OldFriend]

Only this wussie thinks changing the rules after the election has validity. Wish he would just crawl back under his rock, but alas and alack, the jerk is selling a book and needs to get some conservatives to buy it, hence all this pretending to support our beloved President.

[aruanan]

Hey Chris! Let me underscore this yet again for you. If legal ballots are counted, Bush wins. Legal ballots are those which have a single punch for the presidential candidate in which the chad is completely removed. No poke, no vote. No clean poke, no vote. Double poke, no vote. All of this is clearly spelled out in each and every voting booth on each and every voting machine. What is so difficult for you and others to understand about this? Is it as simple as being incapable of reading simple instructions?

[leftiesareloonie]

Why are we in such denial?

Our man is the president. The election was a fiasco. Both sides played anti-democratic hard-ball politics. Neither was interested in hearing the unvarnished will of the people.

How can anyone deny that more people intended to vote for Gore? But of course intentions don't matter. Actual (counted) votes do.

But when you count all the legally countable votes, Gore got more. Too bad for his sorry ass. He gets his comeuppance because he didn't have enough principle to seek a count of all the votes. He got what he deserves, which isn't the presidency.

Bush gets the presidency. Partly because of his own strategizing which was more bare knuckle and even less principled than Gore's. Politics ain't pretty. Let's not pretend either side was high-mind, interested in democratic principles and the truth. If you believe that ....

Bush gets his comeuppance too, in a way. History will not look kindly on this election. The fact is that he didn't win a plurality of legal votes.

But he has the stage and it matters more what he does with it now, not what he did to get it. I think anybody who insists that Bush got more votes is a cowardly, self-deceptive liar. I'm sorry to have people roughly on my side who refuse to admit simple obvious truths.

Don't get me wrong. I love the bare knuckle game -- when it's kept within reasonable bounds. And I think we should be pleased that the liberal press is largely too cowardly and ass-licking to speak the truth. That serves our purposes and shows how easily they can be cowed.

But let's not pretend.

[zbogwan2]

Both candidates paid for choosing cute over straight.

Algore tried to play it cute for his whole Political career and his final cuteness tried to circumvent the election rules in Florida.

Chris Matthews has a mouth that chatters away a hundred miles an hour. Chris is very discourteous to his guests as he constantly interrupts and cuts them off.

[RobFromGa]

Wasn't the justification for the recount the fact that Gore didn't win like he was supposed to. Here's my recollection

Bush won on election night, then one and two recounts.

But Algore could not, did not understand-- he was supposed to be President. His mommy had told him so while their Negro servant waited outside in the car while the family ate a nice meal.

So Algore complained about the mess to some of his Dimwit buddies in select counties in FL and got them to hold up certifying their tallies until he could "change it back".

But after trying for some time to create the necessary paper trail (also called votes), some of his Dimwits buddies said "It can't be done, these evil Republicans insist on watching our every move and anyway there's not enough time to manufacture the votes, we have to wait for them to look the other way".

Then the Evil Witch of Tallahasse Kathleen Harris said "I will make Bush king all by myself according to the laws of FL".

Then the ever-vigilant Fla SC said "this is not right, Bush cannot be the new king, Algore must be king, it is his birthright. Laws be damned. We must change the rules in midstream and circumvent the will of the FL legislature"

And then the evil SCOTUS said to the FL judges "we do not understand a word of your decision, you are all idiots"

Then the FL SC said "Yes, but we are wise idiots and we wish to make Algore the king anyway-- unleash the recounts" and then the evil SCOTUS said "you FL SC judges are too stupid to live- Bush shall be the new President by our decree."

And the Liberal Media read the tablets of SCOTUS and proclaimed "Gore may still be king, then quickly realized that they too were idiots and could not discern English word meanings and shut up for five minutes before declaring that the evil SCOTUS had "stolen the election" from the anointed Algore.

And then there was great hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth, and all the Liberal pundits like Chrissy Matthews had great despair and could not understand how the US SC could do such a dastardly thing-- "why oh why can't the USSC see that they have unfairly chosen Bush over the anointed one?"

And one year later, they are still at it.

This is my recollection, what is yours?

[RickGee]

A ballot-by-ballot analysis by a consortium of newspapers shows that Bush would have won the election clean if he'd let Florida go ahead with the partial recount that Gore wanted.

Er, Bush already had won the Presidency at that time, in the official count, and in a state-mandated recount. It was over at that time. It was already over Chris.

[RobFromGa]

I think anybody who insists that Bush got more votes is a cowardly, self-deceptive liar. I'm sorry to have people roughly on my side who refuse to admit simple obvious truths.

I definitely do not wish to be included in the group of people you consider to be on your side. You have no "side", your side is simply you talking to yourself.

[LizJ]

Actually, Chris Matthews has admitted that he voted for Bush. I heard him say on the radio last week on WLS (Chicago). He said that it was mostly a vote against Clinton's administration.

I do disagree with his statement that Bush was playing cute and that he knew he would lose with a recount. Why would anyone in the lead want a recount? That would be stupid really, to allow a chance for the vote count to change. That was not playing cute.

[Wait4Truth]

I just emailed Chris with my thoughts. He is so dishonest that I just had to vent. I hope lots of other freepers will do the same. These stories make my blood boil. On top of that, my liberal paper had two stories today STILL claiming that gore won. I can't stand it anymore!