[sphinx]

Mr. Bush would have kept his lead, according to the ballot review conducted for a consortium of news organizations

It was good of the NYT to acknowledge this, but it still misses the point. The Democrats did not intend the ballot review to be conducted by a consortium of news organizations, or by any other entity pretending to at least a semblance of neutrality. The dems intended for the review to be conducted by democrat operatives empowered to cheat.

[Phlyer]

It was good of the NYT to acknowledge this, but it still misses the point. The Democrats did not intend the ballot review to be . . .

I think you miss the point as well. The issue was not to have the ballot review completed by the time the Electoral College voted. Gore (through his attorneys) would claim that the Florida vote was in dispute and that the Florida electoral votes could not be counted.

With Florida out of the count, Gore would have had a majority of the remaining electoral college votes.

By the time the decision came down, there was so much visibility into the count that 'cheating' would have been very difficult. But delay was achievable. What the Supreme Court decided - correctly - was that there was not time for a fair recount without compromising the electoral college schedule.

As others have posted, the 'legend' has formed, but the real strategy of Gore's attempt to steal the election has been buried even more deeply than the results of the subsequent recounts.