Al Gore on last night's Daily Show: "I won Florida"

brought a smile to my lips.

I'm sorry you didn't fight harder for it Al.

<sigh>

Because I honestly believe that Kerry won both Florida and Ohio

:cry:

in Ohio isn't fighting?

give them similar circumstances.

Would Gore have continued if he were perceived to be 130,000 votes down in Florida AND perceived to have lost the popular vote by 3 million?

Do you believe Kerry would have conceded the next day if he were down in Ohio by 1500 votes AND had a half million vote edge in the popular vote?

Big math differences there. The difference in the popular vote was probably all rigged machines, a deceit that wasn't really in place till 2002.

Way better than Kerry that's for damn sure!

and I believe that he knows exactly what happened.

Gore did what he could and probably realized better than we did at the time the cabal he was up against. More information is coming out daily on this junta so maybe Gore has saved his best for now.

it pains me to see misguided comments that Gore didn't fight hard. Kerry, now HE gave it up without a fight. Gore stuck it out for a long time and took it to the highest court in the land. How much more could he do?

*sigh*

It's not clear to me that "fight" is a good metaphor for "continuing to contest the presidency" - it implies that whether or not you win is simply a matter of how hard you try.

Kerry could have busted every sinew in his body, and he still wouldn't have been able to conjure up enough votes to have himself declared the winner.

Gore *did* conjure up enough votes to have himself declared the winner, but still wasn't because of partisanship on the supreme court.

By a margin of 4 votes to 5.

I dearly love Al Gore, and he would make a good president IMHO. He doesn't seem be be the least bit interested in running, and it seems like such a waste for him not to jump in the fray.

were from the Black Caucus... and the senate would not hear them... and Gore was presiding. Not one single Senator would come forth and allow them to speak... a travesty.

It was so strange to watch.

It seems as though I remember Dick Gephart from Missouri going down to Florida with Al Gore; but they all caved in to James Baker, and that fake bunch who seemed to be protesting the re-count, was no more than the peons from Bush's staff. It was indeed a travesty.

I never thought that a candidate would win the popular vote, yet the electoral college, Catherine Harris, and the supreme court could steal it away from the winner in order to appoint the one they had promised the presidency. :cry: :cry: :cry: Our once great country has really taken a downhill slide under this administration!

I was in Florida at the time... and in Broward County. It was so damn surreal. I just kept on thinking, "Jeb Bush is the governor and nobody smells a rotten fish?!" If it was some other state you could say "well, maybe..." but the very state GW's brother is the Governor of? I'm still not over it... really.

that we didn't know who our next President was going to be. He definitely fought hard.

gave up. We are all suffering the consequences of that bad decision now. Same goes for John Kerry. Talk about cut and run... :(

He was shut down by the Supreme Court.

What more would you have had him do? Take up arms and refuse to leave the White House? :shrug:

have changed the outcome. I don't know what else people expected him to honestly do.

Throwing the election into the Republican-controlled Congress wouldn't have changed a damn thing. Bush would have still been inaugurated.

He endured weeks of cackling calls for him to concede, including from a growing number of Democrats. He lost in the Supreme Court. If the Court ruling HAD gone his way, whose to say that the vote counts would have gone his way? I'm aware of the media recount showing that he should have prevailed, but that assumes everything was on the level. Remember who was in charge of counting the votes. Say the counts HAD gone his way. Then the Florida legislature simply would have appointed their own slate of Bush electors. Say the legislature had not done that. Then the Congress would have simply challenged the Florida Gore electors and certified Florida's electoral votes for Bush. Gore was hat tricked. They stole it and they had all of their bases covered.

statements that Gore should concede.

Let's not forget the role that Lieberman played in this whole thing. He played safe and ran for Senate and for VP, he couldn't lose. But he was willing to throw Gore overboard.

The man is an albatross around the neck of the Democratic Party. Please PleASE PLEASE Connecticut, vote for Ned Lamont! Por favor. S'il vous plait.

We need vote by mail with paper ballots counted by civil servants in every precinct. We need civil servants to register voters and keep track of voter registrations in every state.

The paper ballot will make chads a notion of the past. People will merely check off their candidate name with ink and civil servants observed by both parties will count the votes.

The vote by mail will prevent the work of the REPUBLIKLAN Party ballot security thugs like the dead Justice William Rehnquist who did this against Hispanics in Arizona in the 1960's that challenge black and hispanic voters that usually vote for the Democrats. When you vote by mail, civil servants cannot see a person's skin color and you cannot hide the voting machines on blacks and other Democrats like they did in Ohio in 2004. The use of civil servants for registering voters and keeping track of voters will prevent people like KKKatherine Harris from purging the voter rolls of blacks and other Democrats before an election like she did in 2000 in Florida.


This will take the REPUBLIKLAN Party out of the vote counting and voter registration business and DIEBOLD can go back to making banking machines and leave the election systems the hell alone.

As one who has worked with computers for over 40 years, I do not trust computers to do election work in the hands of the REPUBLIKLAN Party.





Join the Liberal Democratic Party of the United States of America.

http://groups.myspace.com/liberaldemocraticpartyoftheunitedstatesofamerica

what was he supposed to do after the supreme league of evil doers shut him down? Start a coup? yeah that would have lasted.

Nameone other Dem who would of had the balls to hold out as long as Gore did.


( crickets chirping )

Surely the Black caucus. Oh wait, they actually fought LONGER than Gore did.

insulting, but I think the time to have acknowledged that the vote was stolen was when it happened, not 6 years later. He could have made election fraud his #1 cause, but he didn't. And if he had, perhaps we wouldn't have all the issues with the elections we have now.

I hope he decides to run again, but let's face it, his chances of having an honest election at this point aren't so hot. What has changed since 2000? If anything, the GOP has had more time to get their game plan in place, while the Dems are just now getting around to admitting what really happened in 2000. Who do you think is going to win in 2008, given this situation?

and I was floored when the Senate did not back up the Black Caucus in wanting this not to drop. I asked Barbara Boxer why she didn't stand up and say "The election is fraudulent!" She said that she was asked not to at that point by Mr. Gore. I do think he thought it best after fighting for over a month taking it to every possible level to resolve it, that he may have (too) altruistically thought it would be better not to keep this country up in the air. He obviously didn't think W was going to be such an unbelievable horror of a president.

I am glad that Al Gore is a voice for our environment because that too needs attention. I believe we will get fair elections because people are so fed up, we are simply not going to stand for another theft. Kerry let me down but Gore did not. I hope that Al is strong enough and can sacrifice his personal life enough again to try it again but I'm betting he'll wait until we draft him!

without that Bush was just a one term wonder just like daddy.

(except in the DimSon Evil Cabal) could have figured on 9/11. We just didn't imagine such hatred towards us, which should have been a lesson to us to pay more attention.

* was sucking already in his first year as Commander in Thief. 9/11 definitely helped him but I am sick of him profiting by it.

Congressional Black Caucus is that at the time Al Gore was VP and there was a chance he might have had to cast a tie breaking vote which was a complete no win situation. Had he done so the right would have made his Presidency a nightmare. And please remember at the time NOBODY had any idea that the freak in chief would be as bad as he has turned out to be. When it was finally over I was imagining how bad it would be - and I have to tell you what I learned I have a VERY poor imagination - didn't even come close.....

Even today, nearly 7 years later, voting irregularities barely get equal time with American Idol when it comes to the public attention span.

Al Gore took the battle as far as our democracy allows.

"Unfortunately, there's no intermediary step between a Supreme Court decision and violent revolution." What else was he supposed to do? :shrug:

and violent revolution."

Exactly.

We are all living it baby

The false hope that electoral politics will solve something is far fetched. The need arises the politics always follows. I find the best revenge is never going away when they want you to and pointing out all the mistakes that were made before

People in the streets. Massive demonstrations do not have to be violent. Look what the Venezuelans did when BushCo had Chavez kidnapped. They immediately went into the streets in massive numbers demanding Chavez be returned. They got him back.

We failed in 2000. We didn't fight.

Unfortunately. And I was personally one of the non-marchers. At the time, I merely shrugged and thought we'd just have to put up with the "cowboy" idiot for 4 years. It wasn't until after 9/11 that I woke up and started paying attention to what was/is being done in our name. It didn't take long for me to become outraged once I started paying attention -- and I think a lot of Americans are now outraged who were somnolent politically before. It'd be interesting to see a poll on how many Americans first became political junkies after * and 9/11.

Why do you think the same fuckers who stole the election were all set up with those stupid "Sore Loserman" bumperstickers? If he hadn't fought, you wouldn't have seen them for months after the election.

Al Gore did not cut and run. Nor is what he is doing now "too little, too late." I think Al Gore's book and movie, An Inconvenient Truth, are making tremendous headway into the public consciousness about the very real danger to human existence caused by global warming. On TDS last night, he said he's been doing his slideshow since before he was vice president. Now that's commitment to a belief. Imagine doing this year after year, while the corporate media of your country poo-poo's what you are saying, and you look around and see corporations ravaging precious natural resources, people driving gas guzzlers like there's nothing to worry about.

It's easy for us to sit out here and find fault with those that actually were on the campaign trail and took all the hits. I know it was a grueling time for Al Gore and his family. None of us were happy with the outcome of that presidential election, but to say Gore cut and run is just wrong.

lawsuits pending in Ohio.

So sounds like he's sticking to the case hard and fast.

Nice little republican smear though. Too bad that the republican smears are always opposite of reality.

.

the data about the wide variety of irregularities had not yet been amassed. Listen, I worked for the guy, busing to Ohio from DC and going door to door for days in the rain. I don't pretend to know everything he knew when he decided to concede, but he has never made a good case for it and as the data has been turned up it thows the election results into question.

I didn't like the concession either, but the math here makes sense.

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2006/06/back-to-ohio-rolling-stone-piece.html

Would you venture a GUESS whether or not Gore would have conceded if the perception was that he was 130,000 votes down in Florida, and had lost the popular vote by 3 million?

Gore had the popular vote buffer - and that is why BushInc had machines rigged all over the country to pad the popular vote total in 2004.

It is NEVER too little, too late for Gore or Kerry to speak out whatever the issue is. I don't care what anyone says.

al gore has become the ''marker'' for other democrats.

his passion -- his feisty responses to the republicans -- has blazed a trail for how other democrats SHOULD be portraying themselves.

Just moments ago, I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the United States. And I promised him that I wouldn't call him back this time. I offered to meet with him as soon as possible so that we can start to heal the divisions of the campaign and the contest through which we've just passed.

Almost a century and a half ago, Senator Stephen Douglas told Abraham Lincoln, who had just defeated him for the presidency, "Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism. I'm with you, Mr. President, and God bless you." Well, in that same spirit, I say to President-elect Bush that what remains of partisan rancor must now be put aside, and may God bless his stewardship of this country. Neither he nor I anticipated this long and difficult road. Certainly neither of us wanted it to happen. Yet it came, and now it has ended, resolved, as it must be resolved, through the honored institutions of our democracy.

Over the library of one of our great law schools is inscribed the motto, "Not under man but under God and law." That's the ruling principle of American freedom, the source of our democratic liberties. I've tried to make it my guide throughout this contest, as it has guided America's deliberations of all the complex issues of the past five weeks.

Now the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College. And tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession. I also accept my responsibility, which I will discharge unconditionally, to honor the new President-elect and do everything possible to help him bring Americans together in fulfillment of the great vision that our Declaration of Independence defines and that our Constitution affirms and defends.

Let me say how grateful I am to all those who supported me and supported the cause for which we have fought. Tipper and I feel a deep gratitude to Joe and Hadassah Lieberman, who brought passion and high purpose to our partnership and opened new doors, not just for our campaign but for our country.

This has been an extraordinary election. But in one of God's unforeseen paths, this belatedly broken impasse can point us all to a new common ground, for its very closeness can serve to remind us that we are one people with a shared history and a shared destiny. Indeed, that history gives us many examples of contests as hotly debated, as fiercely fought, with their own challenges to the popular will. Other disputes have dragged on for weeks before reaching resolution. And each time, both the victor and the vanquished have accepted the result peacefully and in a spirit of reconciliation.

So let it be with us.

I know that many of my supporters are disappointed. I am too. But our disappointment must be overcome by our love of country.

And I say to our fellow members of the world community, let no one see this contest as a sign of American weakness. The strength of American democracy is shown most clearly through the difficulties it can overcome. Some have expressed concern that the unusual nature of this election might hamper the next president in the conduct of his office. I do not believe it need be so.

President-elect Bush inherits a nation whose citizens will be ready to assist him in the conduct of his large responsibilities. I, personally, will be at his disposal, and I call on all Americans -- I particularly urge all who stood with us -- to unite behind our next president. This is America. Just as we fight hard when the stakes are high, we close ranks and come together when the contest is done. And while there will be time enough to debate our continuing differences, now is the time to recognize that that which unites us is greater than that which divides us. While we yet hold and do not yield our opposing beliefs, there is a higher duty than the one we owe to political party. This is America and we put country before party; we will stand together behind our new president.

As for what I'll do next, I don't know the answer to that one yet. Like many of you, I'm looking forward to spending the holidays with family and old friends. I know I'll spend time in Tennessee and mend some fences, literally and figuratively.

Some have asked whether I have any regrets, and I do have one regret: that I didn't get the chance to stay and fight for the American people over the next four years, especially for those who need burdens lifted and barriers removed, especially for those who feel their voices have not been heard. I heard you. And I will not forget.

I've seen America in this campaign, and I like what I see. It's worth fighting for and that's a fight I'll never stop. As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe, as my father once said, that "No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."

So for me this campaign ends as it began: with the love of Tipper and our family; with faith in God and in the country I have been so proud to serve, from Vietnam to the vice presidency; and with gratitude to our truly tireless campaign staff and volunteers, including all those who worked so hard in Florida for the last 36 days.

Now the political struggle is over and we turn again to the unending struggle for the common good of all Americans and for those multitudes around the world who look to us for leadership in the cause of freedom.

In the words of our great hymn, "America, America": "Let us crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea."

And now, my friends, in a phrase I once addressed to others: it's time for me to go.

Thank you, and good night, and God bless America.

without getting chills. IMO, it's one of the greatest political speeches in the last ten years. It shows a man of true graciousness. I remember watching the speech that night and my dad mentioned how the country really lost out on something special and how he would have made a much better president than Clinton.

:-(

I can only wish I were capable of such humility and decency in defeat, when every ounce of me would've been straining to incite some kind of revenge, if only of the stealthy sort.

This is my favorite part..

"I do believe, as my father once said, that no matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."

Could Mr. Gore be the man he is today without the 2000 election experience under his belt? I believe that during the last 7 years, he has reshaped his soul and found another way to lead us and help us, outside of the office of the President. The true leaders always seem to find a way to lead, in the end.

Well put -- and so true.

And welcome to DU! :hi:

night.

:hi:

and in order to preserve the rule of law and of the Constitution. Ironically, by conceding he permitted the establishment of a government that has no respect for the Constitution and that is destroying the rule of law and of the Constitution. How often we make the "right" choice only to learn too late that it was "wrong." This is a tragic example of that principle.

God save America. That's the only hope we have left.

but had Gore known this administrations REAL devastating potential and the plans they had already cooked up...He may have fought harder...we all would have fought harder.

hindsight is 20/20, unfortuantely.

Al your country needs you.

respected the rule of law too much and stepped aside but that he'd never repeat that mistake again knowing what it brought to us all. I wish I could remember the exact speech, but I know he said something exactly along those lines.

with the Black Caucus and fought the Florida Electoral Votes. Seeing what has transpired over the last 6 years, is a perfect example of why you fight as hard as you can fight for what's RIGHT.....no matter how bad you think it may make you look.

Have we learned our lesson?

The pukes fight to the bloody end. When will the Dems take on the same fighting spirit?

If a Senator would've signed their complaint it would be different.

the complaint. Had he given his approval, the world would possibly be a different place today.

Not really my view. Take a look at his concession speech, recall what all he did do, then recall what all Kerry did not, and then tell me again how Gore went down without a fight.

Why do DUers insist on tearing down some of our best warriors?

Julie

;) All I'm saying, Julie, is Al could have told a Senator to stand and sign on to help the Black Caucus fight the FL. electoral votes. It was, after all, the AA community that was disenfranchised during the 2000 Fl. election. They could have used some support from the Senate Dems and got NONE. We'll never know what could have been because the Democrats in the Senate didn't want to look like 'sore losers.' Now we have in power a bunch of people who couldn't give a crap less about what ANYONE thinks of them. If only the Democrats felt that way in 2000, we may not be living in the situation we now find ourselves.

Hey, I understand where you're comin' from and agree with much of what you say. Hell if I knew then what I know now I'd have met that band of Rethugs outside of the counting room with at least a hundred fellow DUers and a bat, ready to rumble.

I do think Gore made more than a valiant effort and, after 04's excersize in the hastiest retreat in the history of mankind, I am hard pressed to find fault with Al.

Peace! :toast:

Julie

just like anybody else.

Al Gore did just about everything that he could do and he acted like a statesman and he fought GWB until he couldn't anymore.

So much more than Kerry ever did. Kerry promised to fight for us and then conceded the election in record time. I remember the hold outs on the DU saying "wait, he isn't going to show his card, he is a smart prosecuter, he is working on things behind the scenes..." Well the only thing that Kerry appears to be working on is positioning himself for another run.

I think that we were all in a kind of shock over the election dispute as well, in 2000.

ballot. My Mom was one of them. When I asked her where on the ballot she voted, it seems she inadvertantly voted for Buchanan, much to her horror. She has been a life long Democrat. My Dad, was vision impaired so he had assistance, and his vote for Gore counted.

who sounds like a repuke operative.

Your mom is the first real person I've heard of that had her vote not go for whom she wanted it for because of the infamous "butterfly ballot"!

And that is what made him concede way too early and not push for an investigation. Obviously he wasn't fullyaware of the type of slime he was up against and to what lengths they would go to win steal the election.

FOUR DAYS after the election! This is no longer online, but here's on article about it:

From the London Times
MONDAY NOVEMBER 13 2000

Gore camp demands FBI inquiry

FROM DANIEL MCGRORY IN MIAMI

THE FBI is being asked to investigate how thousands of mainly black supporters of Al Gore were given ballot papers that had allegedly already been marked for rival candidates.

Yesterday Democrat officials were examining claims that up to 17,000 ballot papers in the Miami area had been tampered with in what they described as "organized corruption". Lawyers from across the United States descended on Miami and were busy taking statements from those complaining that they had been cheated or intimidated out of voting for Mr Gore.

A senior Democrat official in Miami, who has hired a team of 20 investigators to carry out an inquiry, told The Times: "Until now in Florida, we have been arguing foul-ups, human error and stupidity. But this is deliberate corruption to spoil votes for Gore and that must be a matter for the FBI.

"We don’t want to be seen as playing the race card here, but the areas where this happened are in poorer precincts, which are predominantly black areas that would be expected to vote almost unanimously for Vice-President Gore. We are not accusing the Republican Party or any other ethnic groups for being behind this. All we are saying is the vote was corrupted. There are just too many double-punched papers."

Jewish leaders in staunch Democrat areas of the city claimed that they, too, had evidence of voting slips being marked before they reached polling stations in areas populated by retired Jewish couples. At a rally in a Miami synagogue, Lisa Versaci, Florida director of People for the American Way, said: "There can be no innocent explanation for a pre-punched ballot sheet."

Republican leaders in Miami dismissed the allegations as "dirty-trick claims". A spokesman said: "A spoiled ballot is not uncommon. There is no dark plot here."

Seriously, constantly reading "Al Gore should have fought harder in 2000" on DU is a prime example why Bush is in the White House right now, why the Republicans won in 2002, why Kerry did not win by a landslide in 2004, why we still may not win the House or the Senate this year, and why we may loose big time in 2008. We are supposed to be Democratic Party activists. We are supposed to be the informed, ultra-partisan part of the Netroots. But we constantly repeat BS from the right wing - - and BS from people on our side of the fence who are working for their own interests, rather than the interests of the nation.

I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt and believe that they weren't adults during the 2000 race, so for those who fall under that category, back in 2000, Gore fought to have all the votes counted for over a month. He didn't have to. He could have accepted the automatic recount that the state of Florida took, that officially gave him about 1200 votes fewer than Smirk. Gore could have conceded then, and saved himself and his family and the nation a lot of grief. Instead, he fought to have all the votes counted all the way up to the Supreme Court. Not to win at all costs - - but to have all the votes counted. Gore had no backing from the Democratic Party - - except for a few very rare exceptions. When the Supreme Court ruled to stop counting the votes in Bush v. Gore, the only thing Gore could have personally done to become President in 2000 was - - as others have said - - launch a civil war. Anybody who honestly thinks we'd be better off with a civil war should join the National Guard and take a tour or six of Iraq, to discover what a civil war is really like.

And anybody who really, honestly thinks that what we are living through is the worst that humans can experience should build a time machine and move to Nazi Germany. Or Stalinist Russia. Or Pol Pot's Cambodia. Hey, why not visit the Antebellum South as an African American? The possibilities are depressingly endless.

People who were alive and paying attention in 2000 should know that during the 2000 campaign, Al Gore was never seen as "too much of a gentleman" by the media or the voters. He was constantly vilified as being too aggressive, too obsessed with winning the White House. "Al Gore would lick a toilet to win" was a common meme in 2000. There was a big flap in the press after the 3rd Presidential debate, because Gore was "too aggressive" to Smirk. (Barbara Bush Sr. told the press that she thought at one point that Gore was going to punch Smirk, and the press ran with it.) The Republicans were able to get those obnoxious "Sore Loserman" signs okayed by focus groups because of this stupid meme.

Gore's early opposition to the Iraq war was ignored by the press because it was just another sign that Al Gore would do anything to get elected.

The opposition to "An Inconvenient Truth" is aided at every turn by the meme that Al Gore would do anything to get elected.

And I repeat, this is our part of why we loose so many elections. Because when we have a candidate of quality, we work just as hard as the Republicans to diss that candidate. When there is a an anti-Democratic meme, we rush to repeat it.

People are so easily brainwashed in to automatically accepting REPUBLICAN TALKING POINTS, it's a freaking wonder, we have any members of the Democratic Party in power.

911 on him.

If it has Al Gore anywhere on it, in it or about it it puts a big assed smile on my face. Hell it makes my whole body smile.
:hi:

:hi:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/06/29/gore-i-wish-president-b_n_24042.html

:D

except it was cats I woke up instead :D

our soon to be Next President.

We did have a good laugh. I was delighted that JS gave him so much time.

who should have recused themselves, since parts of their family were working to get his royal highness elected. Clarence Thomas and Scalia, both, should have recused. To me, they are both a disgrace to the supreme court and to fellow justices who have stood by and protected the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

is the worst Uncle Tom in history.

fucked up excuse for a human being, who knew that was a sample of things to come?

Haitians in Miami, I needed no further proof.

Sp.

My father's name was Clarence, my oldest brother's name is Clarence and I have a nephew named Clarence :grr:

the brilliant, erudite man who is RIGHTFULLY our President on The Daily Show last night made me cry.
Literally.

nt

face it. Look at the life Gore is living right now. He's a rockstar, appearing where he wants, when he wants, and being greeted by wildly enthusiastic crowds.
All that he deserves.
He's the guy who actually went to Viet Nam. He's the guy who actually could discuss the issues. All of the issues. Intelligently.
And he's the guy who stood strong but ultimately decided to put his country ahead of his ego.
Gore is about as different from Bush as two men could be.
I'm happy for him. He's soaring while Bush is plummeting. Gore's critics, and there are surprisingly many - well-funded and amazingly hostile, have been bested by a man who is a gentleman.
But I'm disheartened for our country. We could have had his leadership for the last six years instead of this horrible trainwreck of an administration presided over by a dim-witted puppet.
As Justice Stephens said so well, "we may never know who won, but we know who lost. The American people."

Study Of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast The Deciding Vote

Ford Fessenden and John M. Broder

Ya gotta pay for this one these days. I did. The tasty part is below.


"In a finding rich with irony, the results show that even if Mr. Gore had succeeded in his effort to force recounts of undervotes in the four Democratic counties, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Volusia, he still would have lost, although by 225 votes rather than 537. An approach Mr. Gore and his lawyers rejected as impractical — a statewide recount — could have produced enough votes to tilt the election his way, no matter what standard was chosen to judge voter intent."

Al Gore. Our President.

Gore's Victory

By Robert Parry -- November 12, 2001
<http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/111201a.html>

So Al Gore was the choice of Florida’s voters -- whether one counts hanging chads or dimpled chads. That was the core finding of the eight news organizations that conducted a review of disputed Florida ballots. By any chad measure, Gore won.

Gore won even if one doesn’t count the 15,000-25,000 votes that USA Today estimated Gore lost because of illegally designed “butterfly ballots,” or the hundreds of predominantly African-American voters who were falsely identified by the state as felons and turned away from the polls.

Gore won even if there’s no adjustment for George W. Bush’s windfall of about 290 votes from improperly counted military absentee ballots where lax standards were applied to Republican counties and strict standards to Democratic ones, a violation of fairness reported earlier by the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Put differently, George W. Bush was not the choice of Florida’s voters anymore than he was the choice of the American people who cast a half million more ballots for Gore than Bush nationwide.

More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1456160

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I worked outside a polling place in an african american district on election day 2000. The only other white person there was a cop who kept walking up to voters and snarling "what'cha gonna do when your boy loses? Ya gonna CRY when your boy loses"? The poll workers then tried to close an hour early. When we protested, they started telling the people arriving to vote that they came to the wrong place. The right polling place was across town, they maintained. Since most of the voters walked or came by public transportation, they knew that they couldn't make it over there in time. So we quickly organized a fleet of buses from local churches to take the voters to the "right' polling place....but the cops pulled the buses over and made them unload because they didn't have a "taxi license".

That just one of many such stories. I've told many members of the media about what happened that day, but the only one who listened to me was Greg Palast of the BBC. Gore would have had thousands of extra votes had the people been allowed to vote.

We have been cheated America has been cheated...

I don't intend this to be snarky, bu what was Al supposed to do?

He was up against thugs with NO support from his party and NO support the electorate (or at least precious little support).

I didn't go to Florida to counter-act the Brooks Brothers Riot. I didn't call the DNC to tell them to get their asses in gear. I didn't call the New York Times to demand fair coverage.

AL GORE FOUGHT ALONE FOR 36 DAYS for the election we won.

AL GORE FOUGHT ALONE FOR 36 DAYS for our democracy.

John Kerry 'fought' for less than 24 HOURS.

Should Gore have lead the Senate in fighting to accept Florida's electoral college votes? Yes. How many individuals do you know who could battle the Re-thugs alone with MASSIVE public disapproval and ignorance?

:(

The GOP kept yelling that Gore/Lieberman "didn't support the military" because they wanted all absentee ballots missing a date mark thrown out (which was the law at the time).

Lieberman backtracked and caved big time.

because I don't recall any districts being targeted - just absentee ballots without the proper date stamp.

Rethub v Dem counties. There were 100's of Rethugs who were in on the kill -- vs Gore.

'Gore won even if there’s no adjustment for George W. Bush’s windfall of about 290 votes from improperly counted military absentee ballots where lax standards were applied to Republican counties and strict standards to Democratic ones, a violation of fairness reported earlier by the Washington Post and the New York Times.' <http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/111201a.html>

I don't know if Gore did everything he could do to fight the theft. At some point, I think he fell back on his faith in the system - that everything would work out. I just try to keep in mind that 200 million to 1 is bad odds. The most amazing human can only lead when people are ready and willing to follow.

I think back, in part, to my response to the theft of the 2004 election. I gave a presentation at my church. I gave a presentation to the City Council and they passed a 'resolution in favor of fair elections'. I traveled to Ohio to see Jesse Jackson, Jr and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and David Cobb. I donated to the recount fund. I read. I posted here at DU and sent out 1,000's of emails. I tried and tried and tried and then realized - on the day that Ohio's electoral college votes were quickly accepted after the challenge from Tubbs-Jones and Boxer - that it just wasn't going to happen. There weren't enough people who were aware. The corporate media were alternately ignoring and ridiculing us. Far more people were available to commiserate with me and confirm that I was sane - there *was* a problem and we could not get the attention we needed - in 2004 than were there for Al Gore.

Just how far can one man go alone? Alone?

Now it's the guy with the most aggressive lawyers and the least amount of scruples.

All they needed to do was say "No, this is not right."

The necessary national discussion to preserve our once-great nation as a functioning democracy would have ensued. The Gore margin of tens of thousands in FL (by simple extrapolation of uncounted ballots) and the hours-long poll-tax-lines in Ohio would have been displayed for the public to approve or disapprove. Chips falling where they may.

The events of January 6th, 2001 and January 6th, 2005 would have gone as the founders intended (and as Justice Breyer instructed in his dissent to the Felonious Five's treasonous edict). The contract known as the US Constitution was put into breach on the first of those miserable days. It has yet to be restored to functionality.

But more pragmatically, the (former) American People were "taken out of the loop" on that day. We became "fair game" for attack, as we were no longer potent as the only powerful force-for-good on the planet.

But therein may also lie the Redemption of Our National Soul. We may be forgiven for being temporarily duped by a corrupt DC/Euphemedia Analstocracy.

If we can come to terms with the reality of the past few years; own up to the failures; hold accountable the election thieves and war criminals that exploited those failures; we may yet revive our moral ascendency.

It is our ONLY moral, patriotic option.

--
www.january6th.org

supposed to do?? Instigate armed insurrection? Nobody imagined at the time that His Fraudulency's reign would be quite as catastrophic as it turned out to be.

They're very useful when dealing with coups. But I still love Al.

talking about "An Inconvenient Truth".

Even the right winger blond girl (can't remember her name)
said how great the movie was.

Al and Tipper seem so close, and near the end, they
were so neat holding hands.

I am ready for him to run in 08.
Maybe Feingold as VP.

...he should have forced them to visibly seize the victory from his hands by taking the CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESS to its fullest. That would mean allowing one of his many friends in the Senate to sign the petition of the Congressional Black Caucus to challenge the vote count of Florida. Then the matter would have been thrown to Congress.

With Congress being controlled by the GOP, the victory would have been seized from him, still. But Congressmen would have been forced to seize it by a voice vote, on the record.

Gore would have laid down the historical marker that the Bush appointment was contested. There would have been no capitulation to thuggery. No aquiescence to a coup.

Here's where I fault Gore: he fell for the trap of wanting to preserve his future electability by being "statesmanlike" -- and it WAS a Republican trap. Rove took Gore's strength of gentlemanly demeanor and turned it into a fatal weakness.

I think I won Florida. He never declared "I won Florida".

What has to happen? dang

I saw video of one from early 04 when he talks about Florida being flooded, and he hears some comments from the crowd, and says:
"Hey hey hey hey hey, no no no no. You be careful now, I believe I carried Florida" To which the audience went wild :bounce:

The five Supreme Court Justices handed the election to Gore and with that there was nothing he could do about it. The Supreme Court has the last word under our Constitution. The fact that THEY acted unconstitutionally by superceding the state court in the vote counting matter doesn't change the fact that there was no higher court in which Gore could appeal.

A single word would have made the injustice visible.

---

and he had the most votes despite the repug corruption and vote stealing.

and he had the most votes despite the repug corruption and vote stealing.

the repugs knew they couldn't win fairly so they had a plan to steal the election all along. this is historical fact and will be in the books someday.

Gore's response was so cool - why would'nt he like Florida, they voted for him!

He made a strategic blunder.

As detailed in Palast's "Unprecendented", Gore sabotaged himself by only requesting recounts in the four Florida counties in which he thought the democrats were strongest. The final results of statewide media recounts showed that Gore would have won by a decent margin if he had just asked for a statewide recount, but he did not, so he was never credited those votes. He did win Florida, even AFTER the illegal scrub of African-American voters from the rolls, but unfortunately, Gore lost by taking what he thought was the easy way.

I know the consultant that he had flown in to argue the case for total state recount (Chris Sautter), and they, in the end went with Bill Daley's argument: just do the four counties, instead of the statewide count.

It was an agonizing decision, and saying he took the easy way out is just wrong.

I'll do some digging for details, but, had he gone with the entire state, he'd have come out ahead, and reversed Bush's hand, which would have meant Bush would have been BEHIND, and, as such, would have been forced to continue the counting. No-win situation for him.

and the reason Gore didn't ask anybody in the Senate to intercede was that he knew he'd lose in the house. I'd have liked to have seen that happen, too, but.....

I meant that he thought that using just those counties would be more likely to pay off. He gambled and lost.

I had a long talk with Sautter's brother about this, but can't remember the details now. I'll refresh my memory on this and give the sad sad details.

Chris Sautter, btw, literally wrote the book on election recount challenges. he successfully unseated a sitting member of congress in Indiana with his challenge a few years back. the guy ended up losing his seat by ONE vote.

FIRST google link: ''chriss sautter election recount book''


How Gore and Chris Sautter Are Stealing Our Election and Our Country http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a1abd0e0bb7.htm

:shrug: