Res Publica 2005

The Kerry campaign recently announced a new strategy. Michael Whouley, the DNC’s elections operations operative and a (wink, nudge) Kerry “confidant” has publicly stated that the Kerry campaign has assembled an army of 10,000 lawyers and at least six “SWAT Teams” of lawyers and politicos waiting by fully fueled jets on election eve. When notified of a battleground state battle, the Kerry patrols will swing into action, jetting off immediately to file litigation in order to facilitate a Kerry victory. Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter has promised that the Kerry team will “hit the ground running” and she further vows that Kerry will not make the “mistakes” that Al Gore did in the 2000 election.

According to an AP article, Kerry’s campaign believes that Al Gore made several critical mistakes which allowed George W. Bush to “steal” the election. Gore conceded too early in Florida, according to staffers, and he never declared victory. Furthermore, Bush gained a crucial advantage when he started discussing the transition and his national security picks, making his Presidency appear assured.

Ah, where’s Doris Kearns Goodwin when you need her? Nothing like a spot of historical revisionism. Let us not forget how the 2000 debacle unfolded - first, the MSM - shilling as usual for the left-wing candidate - announced that Gore had swept Florida. This was an hour before the strongly Republican Panhandle polls closed, and it was in direct defiance of a request made by (Florida) Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Tom Brokaw was the first to announce Gore’s win at 7:49 pm, and the other networks quickly followed suit, even though 96 percent of the Florida vote remained uncounted. Lilewise, the polls in the Midwest and West wouldn’t close until later that evening. As the voting proceeded, a clear pattern was revealed. Shortly after the polls closed, if exit polling and initial results looked promising for Gore, the victory was instantly called. If the state was trending Bush, the networks said nothing. The networks triumphantly announced important Gore wins in Michigan and Pennsylvania (making, with Florida, the crucial “trifecta”) within three minutes, while remaining curiously silent on Bush’s victories in Tennessee (Gore’s home state) and Arkansas. While Rather, Brokaw and Jennings yucked it up over the impending Gore victory, a third of all registered voters in the Midwest and Western states had yet to vote. Disheartened voters got out of line and went home, further dampening Republican numbers.

During all this backslapping, the networks neglected to mention a critical development - the slow inexorable turn for Bush in Florida. As early as 8:45 pm, the Associated Press showed Bush ahead by 30,000 votes. By 9:45, Bush was leading by 130,000 votes. The networks completely ignored this turn of events, reliably still adding states to the Gore column while withholding states that Bush had won handily. Florida was not removed from the Gore column until 10:00 pm. Even though Bush was now leading by 150,000 votes, Florida was pronounced “too close to call” by the network chieftains and remained in official limbo. This charade continued for another four hours, while Bush remained heartily in the lead. Finally, at 2:16 am, the networks declared Bush the winner. Vice-President Gore phoned George W. Bush at 2:30 am in order to offer his concession. Meanwhile, the votes continued to pour in for both candidates, and by 3:11 am Bush’s lead in Florida had dropped to a mere 6,000 votes, enough to trigger an automatic recount. At 3:30 am, Gore called Bush to retract his concession. The MSM, with their slanted bias toward Gore and inaccurate reporting, disheartened Republican voters in the Florida Panhandle, the Midwest and the West. Who knows how many millions of votes they may have cost Bush. It also gave Gore a crucial advantage, allowing his winning of the popular vote. Democrat operatives quickly leaped upon this fact, arguing for the abolition of the Electoral College because the “guy with the most votes should win.”

The next phase of the strategy was hurriedly implemented. At 6:00 pm on Tuesday, TeleQuest, a telemarketing firm was hired to call Palm Beach County Democrats in order to postulate that they may have been confused by the so-called “butterfly ballot” and may have voted for Patrick Buchanan instead of Al Gore. 5,000 voters were called and several hundred complained to the elections board. Jesse Jackson and the usual suspects immediately jetted down to Palm Beach County in order to protest - with preprinted yellow signs obligingly made up by the AFL/CIO. As the chad counting continued however, something completely novel and unexpected occurred. Republicans actually - for once - fought back.

# posted by Knitting a Conundrum @ 9:22 AM