[general_re]

Oh yes, and the thesis that Gore stole votes last time, and Kerry didn't this time, I find absurd.

There's just as much actual evidence to support that explanation as there is to support the explanation that the electronic voting machines were flawed in 2004 - i.e., none whatsoever. There is no reason to believe that one can simply treat 1996 or 2000 as some sort of control group, and evaluate 2004 in light of those results.

[Torie]

You got it. Nothing wrong with working with baselines, and looking at swings, but this data was so tortured, it makes the practicioners of torture by the rack during the auto de fe era, seem like compasssionate conservatives by comparison with this little study, and those who claim that Gore stole thousands of votes in Florida in 2000.