2000 POST ELECTION
ANALYSIS
#4: (December
8, 2000):
To The ELECT
HOBIE
HOMEPAGE
WOW! The fun
continues.... & into history we go.... with
HOBIE'S TEN TRUTHS
1.
None
of the laws involved came down from a mountain on tablets... and every
attorney is acutely aware how inadequate man made laws are --
especially
in dealing with exceptional fact patterns... so the best policy is to
do
what makes the most sense.... If the contest was for any other office,
extra time would be taken to make as accurate count as needed....
And since all the votes will be hand-counted after the election by
various
news organizations, why not count them all now...
2. All the experts agree that hand
counts
of punch voting machine ballots are more accurate... and indeed that is
the premise behind the laws in Texas and Ohio and other states... so
Bush
is arguing that the less accurate machine counts should prevail because
the Florida Legislature hasn't yet explicitly provided detailed rules
for
hand counts... that is, bad law (that doesn't accurately count the
votes)
should prevail simply because better rules haven't yet been explicitly
adopted in Florida....
3. Every other election from student
council president to Congress, is decided by majority vote... Simply
put,
the Electoral Count, like allowing only white males to vote and
the
Third Amendment's prohibition against quartering troops in people's
homes
during peacetime, are Constutional anachronisms....
4. If Gore had not won the popular vote,
the public -- and his party -- would not have allowed him to contest
the
initial results in Florida....
5. The Republicans act as if the
Democrats
are hand counting the votes in a private room, when in fact Republicans
are present and able to contest every ballot.... If votes were
being
manufactured, surely some segment of the press would know and report
it....
and Gore would have picked up more votes.....
6. The election in Florida is so close
it is possible that the result cannot be known with certainty... that
is
the margin of error even in a recount agreed to by both side may well
be
greater than the likely margin of victory for either party....
6. Bush's first post-election speech
in which he emphasized he would press for a tax cut for all (including
the very wealthy) and eliminate the estate tax (for only the very
wealthy)
shows the truth of the Political Golden Rule, i.e.:
"Those that have the gold, rule...."
7. The inflammatory rhetoric by some
-- but certainly not all -- Republicans is simply un-American...
trashing
the courts and maintaining that Gore isn't following the law but rather
"stealing the election"
is the height of hypocrisy... especially since Bush had planned to
contest
the election if he had won the popular vote and lost the electoral
count....
And even Bush's strongest supporters acknowledge that Bush would have
contested
the election if the roles had been reversed... (In contrast Gore
early on silenced those in his campaign who used equally unfortunate
language,
especially against the Florida Secretary of State.)
8. The background of the winner will
be investigated more thoroughly after the election than it was during
the
election.... with unfortunate results....
9. If the Republicans had played fair
during the primaries, John McCain would have won both the primaries and
the national election -- in a landslide -- and we wouldn't be faced
with
this exceptional situation....
10. And finally, this election will
ultimately work against Republicans in future national elections
because
it has -- and will -- point out ways the current system undercounts
minorities
and poorer voters....
Back to: Y2K
POST-ELECTION ANALYSIS
#1: What Bush And Gore Should Do Now
Y2K POST-ELECTION ANALYSIS
#2: The Most Remarkable Election in Our Lifetimes
Y2K POST-ELECTION ANALYSIS #3:
Hobie's 10 Observations
or Back To The ELECT HOBIE HOMEPAGE
Page prepared 12/08/00;
Original material only copyright 2000; other
material
copyright by holders;
see the Elect Hobie Homepage; Non-Commercial Distribution encouraged
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attribution.