[Shryke]

will be about 119,000 votes smaller than the unofficial margin of 136,000,

Uh, that means Bush WON by 17,000 votes??? This writer is awful.

[RockinRight]

Should have been:

will be about 119,000 votes--smaller than the unofficial margin of 136,000

if typed correctly.

[Huck]

Or does it mean Kerry lost by 119K, not 136K, meaning he was 17K closer to winning that earlier thought, but still 119K off? I can't tell from the tortured wording.

[Not A Snowbird]

I guess the author flunked "Commas Are Your Friends 101".

[Gaetano]

commas are a good thing when used correctly.

[dirtboy]

Uh, that means Bush WON by 17,000 votes??? This writer is awful.

You are assuming that the writer used misleading writing by mistake instead of purposefully.

[siunevada]

This writer is awful.

And the editor is no great shakes either.

I guess it should have been:

votes. Smaller......

Maybe they've fired their editors and just rely on SpellCheck.

[demlosers]

Bush's margin of victory in the state that put him over the top in his re-election bid will be about 119,000 votes [comma] smaller than the unofficial margin of 136,000, the county election board figures showed.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Uh, that means Bush WON by 17,000 votes??? This writer is awful.

I'm thinking the poor quality of the writing was intentional, as was the editor's choice of headline.

[goldstategop]

LOL. Someone should correct this writer's sloppy grammar. I think he meant Bush's final margin is over 119,000 votes. That's still far more than the 136,000 credited to him in unofficial tallies. So the difference would be a net Kerry gain of 17,000+ once all the ballots are counted. Not enough to change the results in OH. (Just imagine what the fruitcake tinfoil Lefties over at DU must be thinking right now - where are the missing 110,000 votes??) You would think journalists at AP can write in clear English. DUH.

[DennisR]

Looks like they forgot some punctuation ("--"):

"Bush's margin of victory in the state that put him over the top in his re-election bid will be about 119,000 votes--smaller than the unofficial margin of 136,000, the county election board figures showed. That means Kerry drew closer by about 17,000 votes."

[Redcloak]

...will be about 119,000 votes smaller than the unofficial margin of 136,000,

Uh, that means Bush WON by 17,000 votes??? This writer is awful.

Someone needs to tell him that commas are our friends.

[funkywbr]

The smaller the win the bigger the SALT SHAKER I say!~}

[Signalman]

How much you want to bet that the writer left out a comma on purpose.

[faithincowboys]

Of course, he wrote it that way to create a false impression. These people make Pravda look like honest journalism.

[tiki]

Bush's margin of victory in the state that put him over the top in his re-election bid

This sentence is totally stupid sounding too.

[Rockitz]

Amazing. I saw that too. They're all miniature Michael Moores running around and misleading or lying anyway they can.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Bush's margin of victory in the state that put him over the top in his re-election bid will be about 119,000 votes smaller than the unofficial margin of 136,000, the county election board figures showed. That means Kerry drew closer by about 17,000 votes."

---

Didn't the author realize what he wrote? Where's the damn comma after "119,000 votes"?

[lawgirl]

Bush wins.... there's no reason to keep reading further than those two words.