[HankReardon]

What's the best response to those who want to believe Bush was "awarded" the Presidency?

[snooker]

Easy one. Every recount, rigged or otherwise Bush won.

[Qwinn]

You've got it down pretty well, actually. It should be added, however, that a year later the NY Times put out an article summarizing the results of a year long study done by a conglomoration of newspaper and other media entities. Basically, they held the recount in exactly the way that Gore's lawyers asked for. Bush still won.

Don't have a link handy. Take a look for it and see if you can find it. If you can't, I'll do some digging for you.

Qwinn

[Howie66]

You have a pretty clear understanding of what happened already.

The real issue is that you are talking to some people that are never going to accept the truth, no matter how plainly it is laid out for them.

[William McKinley]

What's the best response to those who want to believe Bush was "awarded" the Presidency?

I recommend mockery. Unserious people should not be treated seriously, and if you treat their nonsense as meriting a dignified response you implicity sanctify that a reasonable person could disagree.

[ovrtaxt]

What's the best response to those who want to believe Bush was "awarded" the Presidency?

Cruel laughter, abject derision, and then kick sand in their face.

[samtheman]

I agree. This issue constantly comes up in conversation whenever there are leftists in the room.

Links, please.

References, please.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

8 What I KNOW about election 2000 ~ have had a good response sharing this (+ 'mockery' from spin artists, a sure sign it's hitting home).

8 Let the Sunshine In [John Lott debunks DNC's Fla. election 2000 lies ~ again] ~ National Review  | 12/10/03 | John R. Lott Jr.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

The US Supreme Court voted 7-2 that George Bush's civil rights were being violated by the Florida State Supreme Court. The 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court was how to remedy the violation.

Of greater relevance is that if Al "The Grinch" Gore had carried either Tennessee or Arkansas he would have been elected President

[freepy smurf]

I believe (and I'm pretty sure about this) that Al Gore LOST. TIMMMBERRR!!!

[Ff--150]

A review of the taboo subjects of VOTESCAM and the Voter News Service (VNS) could enlighten...

[alloysteel]

You have summed up the salient points. Gore and his coterie would hve been in a much stronger position if they had asked for a recount of the entire state, not just the counties in which they thought they had rolled up a huge margin. The margin of the vote in those counties was never in question, but the veracity of the election clerks involved was clearly subject to review and sharp scrutiny.

And in a half dozen other states that Bush lost by narrow margins, the same kind of scrutiny may have showed up a pattern of vote fraud that was initiated and encouraged at the highest levels within the Democrat party. The Gore people knew exactly which precincts to go to when they were looking for a manufactured margin of victory.

[Poohbah]

What's the real historic, unbiased story of Florida 2000?

The networks broke their own rule about not calling states while that state's polls were open. The panhandle, which leans Republican, is in the Central time zone. I'm sure that was a coincidence.

GOP turnout in the panhandle was sharply depressed.

After that, Bush eked out a victory.

Before midnight, Al Gore was hiring lawyers, and the Democrats were executing a contingency plan that revolved around telling gullible senior citizens in West Palm Beach that they may have unintentionally voted for Pat Buchanan. These voters were made parties to a class action lawsuit, demanding a re-vote. It's worth noting that the lawsuit had far more members in its plaintiff class than Buchanan's actual vote tally.

[Jim Noble]

The real story is that the Constitutional process for resolving disputes of this nature (which of course were anticipated by the Founders) was discarded in favor of more rule by judges.

The escape from politics, the headlong flight by elected officials from anything that smacks of responsibility, continues and is accelerating.

Congress in 1877, after the Hayes-Tilden election, at least recognized itself as the responsible body by passing the Electoral Vote Counting Act. Congress in 2001, as the responsible (because elected) body, said-NOTHING.

Amendment XI: "...they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; — The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; — The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President..."

There was zero chance-ZERO CHANCE-that the Congress would have certified a Florida Supreme Court imposed Gore slate of electors.

Either Congress would have counted the Bush votes certain to have been transmitted by the Florida Legislature, OR they would have counted neither, in which case President Bush would have been promptly and Constitutionally elected by the House of Representatives.

There was no case that was justiceable by the US Supreme Court, which has no role and no right to meddle in elections, which are not an act of the government but an act of the People for which the governments at various levels provide technical assistance.

The Supreme Court's willingness to hear Bush v. Gore was a mistake. Nothing happened in Florida which would not have been corrected by the Constitutional process.

[steverino62]

I usually reply that if Bush was "selected" in 2000, then according to the 22nd Amendment he can run for reelection in 2008! Guaranteed to torque their jaws...

[bobjam]

Article II of the Constitution states that the President shall be elected by electors who are chosen by each state in a manner set up by that state's legislature. This is very important as the Constitution clearly assigns to the state legislature the final authority on chosing electors (there is no requirement to actually have a Presidential election).

The Florida Legislature had set a deadline by which all county election results must be certified and submitted to the Florida Secretary of State. The Gore team sued Katherine Harris when she tried to enforce that deadline. The state circuit and appellate courts ruled for Harris, however the Florida Supreme Court (6 of the 7 justices are Democratic appointees) sided with Gore, overruled the Legislature and made up a new deadline. The US Supreme Court vacated that ruling and restored the deadline that had been set by the Legislature.

By this time all overseas ballots had been counted, and Katherine Harris certified 500 vote win for Bush. The Gore team then challenged the results in Leon County (Tallahassee) circuit court. They lost and appealed directly to the state Supreme Court. That court again rewrote election law, uncertified the result, and ordered hand counts of 4 of the 67 counties. The US Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling (the Clinton appointees dissenting) found that all ballots must undergo the same level of scrutiny. In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court found that the Florida Supreme Court had again arbitrarily rewritten state law, and vacated its decision.

The last set of Supreme Court rulings came on the federal deadline (set by Congress) for states to submit the names of their electors. While the court fights were ongoing, the Florida Legislature met in emergency special session to address the election chaos. On the final day, the State House of Representatives declared Bush the winner and chose his electors to be the electors of Florida. The US Supreme Court ruling meant that the State Senate didn't need to take up that vote as well, so the bill was never passed.

[alnick]

Read Bill Sammon's At Any Cost : How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election.

[trebb]

"Nader robbed us of one election. We're not going to let him do it to us again," one party official told me.

It's solved - the above is a statement from a Dim in Florida who opposes Nader running - as you can see, he absolves Bush from "stealing the election".

And they wonder why we call them Dims...

[Jhensy]

And don't forget controlling the voting machinery, a la the Democrat-designed butterfly ballot.

It's the old Joe Kennedy/Daley machine/Charles Foster Kane tactic: If you win, fine; if not, have the FRAUD AT THE POLLS strategy all ready to go. If you knowingly design ballots that can be seen as 'flawed' afterwards, you can scream bloody murder in no time in case things don't go your way. Having "disenfranchised" elderly holocaust victims and poor minorities ready before the cameras the next morning is a nice touch.

[VRWC_minion]

The voting stuff was moot. The Florida legislature stood ready to override the results of the bogus counts and send there own delegates. Florida was never in play. It was just good grand theater.

[Paleo Conservative]

Broward, Palm Beach, and Dade counties underestimated the number of fraudulent votes they needed to manufacture to put Gore over the top in Florida!