Posted on 07/08/2004 9:57:50 AM PDT by kattracks
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Democrats John Kerry and John Edwards, on their first trip together to the state that narrowly put President Bush in the White House after a fierce recount and court fight in 2000, promised Thursday that "every vote is going to be counted" this year.The presidential candidate told thousands of screaming supporters gathered in an airport hanger in Broward County, ground zero in the recount, that he's discovered that Edwards' two young children, ages 6 and 4, were "good at math."
"Those kids really know how to count," Kerry said. "I've given them a special duty in this election. We're sending Jack and Emma Claire down there to help those Republicans in West Palm Beach count those votes."
As the crowd erupted, Kerry boomed: "I've got news for you. In 2004, not only does every vote in Florida count but every vote is going to be counted."
Kerry said elections officials in Florida still are trying to fix voting machines. "I'll make a deal with them," he said. "They fix those machines and we'll fix America!"
The campaign visit to Florida — just two days after Kerry chose Edwards as his vice presidential running mate — underscored the importance of the state that Bush won by 537 votes over Democrat Al Gore in the disputed 2000 election.
Recent polls show Bush and Kerry locked in a close race in their battle for the state's 27 electoral votes, the largest prize of the battleground states and a 10th of the total needed to win the White House.
Since March, each campaign has spent more than $10 million in television commercials in Florida, where the president's brother Jeb easily won re-election as governor in 2002.
The only Democrats to carry the state in the last three decades are Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton 20 years later even though Florida has about 300,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.
From Florida, Kerry and Edwards were headed to New York City for a concert fund raiser featuring the Dave Matthews Band, Mary J. Blige, John Mellencamp, Jon Bon Jovi, Wyclef Jean, Whoopi Goldberg and others.
The $7 million the concert raised will be divided between Kerry's campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Last month, a similar concert in Los Angeles raised $5 million.
Not just that, but in one of those counties (Dade), the Dems started slow walking the recount once they hit the more Republican Cuban precincts.
They weren't counting votes. They were torturing every ballot until it confessed a vote for Gore.
" "I'll make a deal with them," he said. "They fix those machines and we'll fix America!"
That quote is rich with inference towards vote fraud.
They just don't WANT to remember it as it really happened. It's really a mental illness with these people.
Of course they will be counted, the only question is how many times!
Tell the lie, tell it often enough and it becomes the truth.
The only votes NOT counted in Florida in 2000 were those from which NO determination could be made of the voter's intent, those cast by unregistered voters, and those absentee military votes that were suppressed by the "party of the people" Democrats.
That said, Broward, County, Miami-Dade County, Palm Beach County are three of the four Democrat strongholds in Florida. So when the John-Johns talk about the REPUBLICANS suppressing or not counting votes in those counties, they don't know what the h*ll they are talking about. The elections supervisors in those counties are all Democrats.
What a dimpled chad in the "Gore box" told me is that a person hovered over Gore's name on the ballot for a few moments, but then thought better of voting for the big goof. The biggest problem with the "recount" in Florida is that Democrats and election officials thought they could "divine" the intent of the voter whenever they came across a dippled chad. The explanation is simple: a dippled chad meant that a person may have THOUGHT about voting for Gore, but in the end, didn't.
Right and let's hope every vote is only counted once. We'll hold kerry and edwards to their word that every vote is counted, not recounted, and recounted, and recounted.
I'm sure they want to "fix' the machines, and the DNC is working real hard on that project!
That's exactly right. What a bunch of crap. Everyone knows that Palm Beach is a heavily DEMOCRATIC county, and the supervisor of elections there is a DEMOCRAT. The poll workers were mostly DEMOCRATS. Plus, it was the DEMOCRATS who couldn't figure out how to punch the holes. (we'd been using those punch cards in our county for years and never had a problem. But then again, our county is strongly REPUBLICAN, and apparently, educated)
They will never get over their 2000 election loss, and like true Democrats, will continue to blame someone else for their shortcomings.
"They fix those machines and we'll fix America!"
America isn't broken.
There is actually a singer named Bilge?
The Democrats are the ones who brought all of this upon themselves, including the new electronic voting, which they pushed for, being a fraud. Laws to them are simply roadblocks to simply find a detour around.
I get angry when people rail against the US Supremes, but nobody mentions the kangaroo FL Supremes.
"Stretch" PING!!!
("Stretch" is Bill Sammon's name in the White House Press Corps. He wrote the definitive book on this topic in 2001, "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election." He also wrote the excellent book "Misunderestimated" (How the President Deals with Terrorism, John Kerry and the Bush Haters).
I highly recommend both books to anyone who still has questions about this issue. Personally, I saw right through the Dim talking point of "making every vote count" BC as it was happening 4 years ago. It's one of the reasons that, for all the good he's done, I still cannot fully forgive Joe Lieberman (Gore is just a lost cause).
Here's the definitive stat for you (also in Stretch's book):
---Avg. time to call a state for Gore: 36 minutes.
---Avg. time to call a state for Bush: 1 hr 40 minutes (or it's "too close to call").
The moral of the story: as long as your ballot area is open, vote. Don't trust anyone's account about which state is called for either candidate--NOT EVEN FOXNEWS--until AFTER you have voted. (Then you can trust FOX...and FreeRepublic.)
They just can't seem to accept reality. More people wanted Bush as President than Gore.
Right. After the fact that it was the US Supremes that said the FL Supremes weren't following Florida law, by overstepping their (FL Supremes) authority inside the judicial branch onto the legislative branch by legislating new laws from the judicial bench.
"Those kids really know how to count," Kerry said. "I've given them a special duty in this election. We're sending Jack and Emma Claire down there to help those Republicans in West Palm Beach count those votes.
OMG, he actually dragged Edward's kids out and used them in a rant about Florida 2000?! Keep it up, Eff'n Kerry, let everyone see what a classless, crass bufoon you are.
I have, unfortunately, given Bon Jovi money, as there was a time when that band kicked a$$ and didn't talk about politics.
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