More about the stupid election

I heard a short opinion piece today that claims that some things are a matter of entitlement, and apparenly, George Bush thinks he's more entitled to the presidency than Al Gore does.

I think this is true.

You can say "but he DID win (the popular vote), and that means he campaigned enough. And he's fighting hard now to prove that he won Florida too."

I say that barely matters, and here's why: If Al Gore had really wanted to beat George Bush, he would have played hardball during the election. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he would have gone negative. Let's face it: attacking Bush's record would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Let's review:

• Bush's military service record is far more questionable than Al Gore's.

• Bush is a recovering alcoholic. Not a nice thing to attack, but also a consideration when we're talking about fitness for the job of Leader of the Free World

• Bush lied about his arrest record

• Bush lied about funding education in Texas

• Bush condones the execution of people with IQs in the low 50s

• Bush vehemently supports a drug war that would have put him in prison for life if he weren't white and his daddy weren't rich and powerful

• Now, while Gore has nothing to lose, the Gore PR people aren't exploiting the fact that dimpled chads count in Texas

Why didn't he get out the virtual gun? Because he didn't want it badly enough.

Bush repeately attacked the Buddhist temple thing and Gore just laid down and died. The man was investigated, by Republicans, and there were no charges made. Why not mention that every damn time Bush threw out that accusation? Gore, like it or not, is associated with Bill Clinton. Why not use that for the mileage it's worth? People that hate Clinton aren't too likely to vote for Gore anyway. Go for the fence sitters! Campaign with Bill!

Here's a link to the editorial mentioned above and to a column by Maureen Dowd with which I also agree.

No judge is going to throw out all the absentee ballots in a county. I tend to agree that the Republicans exercised Very Poor Judgement, but I don't think we can punish the voters for that. We can, however, punish the idiots who made those poor decisions for perpetrating election fraud. Really, if Florida doesn't do SOMETHING about that, I don't know how they can hold their virtual head up in public elections ever again.

And what the hell is going to happen once the Miami paper counts those ballots and it turns out that Gore won? Aren't Bush and Cheney concerned about that at all? I'd be shaking in my boots and the idea of having my legitimacy undermined a few months into my presidency. For Christ's sake people, count all the damn votes and get it the fuck over with!