I am working on little sleep here, so my apologies if I get incoherent. Before I dine on crow, I have to say that I was not the only one to go out on a limb. The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and several other publications hinted at a Bush landslide. If I'm going to eat crow, I take solace in the fact that I will be eating it with some pretty good company.
Where were the "broken glass" Republicans? Why was black turnout so high? How in the world did Bush get (at least according to reports), 52% of the elderly vote in Florida? With prevailing wisdom having been turned on its ear, absolutely none of this makes any sense to me. There is no clear-cut reasoning to these results. I would not be surprised to find out that the Christian Coalition members voted for Gore in overwhelmingly high numbers. This is how weird it has been.
I went to bed last night believing that Bush had it sewn up. With 86% reporting in Florida, Bush was up by 3 points. I figured that with the amount of absentee ballots going to Bush, it was in the bag. As I watched the news this morning, I could feel my jaw dropping, my heart sinking and, quite frankly, I am pissed off that this thing isn't over yet. I don't know how much more I can take.
As much as a Gore Presidency disturbs me, if he wins the Electoral count, I stand by his victory. With the election in the balance in Florida right now, it can go either way, even though earlier counts show Bush with a slim majority in the state.
There has been many reports of voter fraud, throughout the country, although what happened in Missouri particularly bothers me. A Democratic Judge declared that St. Louis ballot boxes should remain open an additional 3 hours. In a state that the Senatorial election between a dead guy and a Republican remains within 1 percentage point, to leave the ballots boxes open 3 more hours in a heavily Democratic County, just screams out fraud. The fact that half the state voted out of sympathy, and may give the seat to a candidate that they know virtually nothing about (she may be for an annual puppy killing parade, for all that the voters know). This will be contested, and maybe there will be a runoff (I am not sure, just speculating).
I find it humorous that Florida is going to decide this election. Considering that neither candidate was ever considered to be strong Presidential material, we have the home of Disney World calling this race. Lets face facts, we could have done better on both sides of the ballot. As a writer, I appreciate irony and this election gave me plenty of it.
The Mickey Mouse State determines the Mickey Mouse election; I call it poetic justice.
© The Cynic, 2000
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