John

Florida....palm trees swaying and voters ballots awash on the shores. I read how newly self crowned King George II is vacationing with his royal family in Boca Grande, Fla right now. He's taking a break from killing humans by injections in Texas to kill some fish (and this is after his famous quote about how he thinks "fish and humans can coexist peacefully" too). Since he has already killed off democracy in the United States he might as well take a little vacation before he starts handing out money in big tax cuts to the millionaires once he reaches his throne in Washington D.C.

American

All who value freedom and individual rights are called to vigilance to ensure that the information ministries of our new corporate republic of Bush do not successfully cast a fog of forgetting over the crime that we have all just witnessed, with our own eyes.
JKGalbraith, Texas Observer

Al

1. Get over it. 2. Wish him luck because he will need it. 3. Wish us all luck because we, too, will need it. 4. Have a nice day.

sorry

Like most Americans, I have nothing personal against Bush, Dick Cheney, nor against Colin Powell and the others now surfacing as members of the new administration. But I will not reconcile myself to them. They lost the election. Then they arranged to obstruct the count of the vote. They don't deserve to be there, and that changes everything. They have earned our civic disrespect, and that is what we, the people, should accord them.

Pops

Guess what? There has never been a President in this country who was PERFECT!!! Every darn one of them has had problems. Anyone who would want that job in the first place has to be an ego-maniac! Would you want that kind of public scrutiny and life in a fishbowl?

Get over it people! If you don't like it move to Canada or somewhere else. But, know that there is no place on this earth that is PERFECT!!! Like is too darn short to get all worked up over something you cannot change!!

veritas

But generally, they got voted in. Not this one. Nope, no.

R. Reagan

Isn't this a travel forum? Let's get over the political rhetoric and move on to something really important-travel & fun. Oh, by the way Sorry, GW could not have stolen any election because he won on each and every count. PS:If you truly have a problem, take it up with the supreme court. Have a wonderful vacation!!

not a reagan fan

Mr. President, I'm so pleased you are doing better. I must say that although I didn't always agree with you, at least you were adept in front of the cameras, and you had that natural sophistication and je ne sais quoi, maybe from being so well-traveled.

Dumbya, even when scripted, will never match your natural talent. In fact, his press conferences post-election have been markedly pathetic. And...there's that little detail about obstructing the vote counting. I don't think you would have done that, would you have, Uncle Ron?

Take care, thanks for writing!

Associated Press

AP National 12/21/2000
Gore Wins Popular Vote by 539,947 votes


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Gore won the nation's popular vote in the presidential election by more than 500,000 votes, according to official totals made available Thursday to The Associated Press.

An AP survey of all 50 states' final election numbers showed that Democrat Gore led President-elect Bush, the former GOP governor of Texas, by 539,947 votes.

Final numbers show Gore with 50,996,116 votes and Bush with 50,456,169. Bush won the White House by capturing 271 electoral votes, one more than the Constitution requires.

The popular vote total includes all absentee ballots that were counted in the weeks following the Nov. 7 election.

AP-NY-12-21-00 2014EST< 

Fred

I firmly believe that if George W. Bush was an honest and decent man he would have let Florida count the vote using the same standards as Texas (where he himself signed into law a manual recount bill). In my mind, George W. Bush had the moral obligation to let the vote be counted or to concede. He decided to steal the election through "legal" means. George W. Bush and his Dad's cronies at some point in time decided that if we, the people, count our vote they would lose. From that point on they came up with this maddening legal strategy to block the vote. What they did may have been "legal", but is was unethical. He stole the election. Of course, the Republicans are spinning it differently and it is painful for many, many Americans to hear the GOP rationalizations. For this nation to heal George W. Bush needs to acknowledge that what he did to us was unethical and abusive. He needs to acknowledge that he may not have broken the rule of law in the United States, but he broke the natural laws of human decency.

George W. Bush

Hmmm, I shore am tard of all you malcontents bitchin' 'bout me. Y'all know that my dear brother Jeb stole that 'lection for me fair and square, so y'all jes shut up.

I have decided that I will direct my FBI Director to be named (David Duke seems like a good ol' boy and would be real good in that there ol' job) to begin an investigation into this hot bed of pinko commie bed-wetters and search each of you down and see if we can't distribut a little Texas-style justice on each of y'all.

R. Reagan

Well Mr. Associated Press, the only thing of relevance in your statement was the fact that "constitutionally" GW received the 271 votes
"constitutionally" necessary to win. Since when did having the most most first downs, win a football game? If your so upset with the count, be upset with the supereme court (they not GW stopped the counting) and/or your constitution since that is how he legally won. I'd rather have GW win legally and "constitutionally" than winning by a pimple, dimple or rimple ballot. Yeah, those vote counting techniques in Broward county were something the whole country should be proud of (cough cough). Get over it and let's get back to travel! Sorry to say this but I've got to get back to my chimp at the ranch. Thanks GW for winning one for the Gipper!!!!!

bob

I'm not sure why everyone seems so excited about Gore? More people from his home state (TN) voted for Bush! In addition, the argument that Gore won the popular vote is as significant (or rather insignificant) as the fact that Bush won more won states. In addition, over a million votes throughout the U.S were never counted (check it out) so we can't be sure that Gore truly won the popular vote (not that it really matters).

Leone

What an exceedingly tired subject. Here in DC, the process moves ahead with transition while you folks are still mired in the past. Join one of the media and university teams doing a recount in Fla. - and be just as relevant. I voted for Gore, but it was not a perfect choice. He ran the worst cmapaign one could imagine, so he lost. So, forget it, and HNY. Ciao

ABoleyn

Y-A-W-N...

Hana

To quote journalist Carla Binion:

From the moment George W. Bush was declared president-appointee, certain political leaders and media pundits have told the rest of the American people to: (1) Quickly forget voting irregularities in Florida, and (2) Revere our rulers and pundits, as if we were children and they embodied all parental wisdom. Here are the reasons why it is a bad idea that we become a nation of amnesiacs, and a nation of children.

Both George Orwell and Aldous Huxley imagined an eerie dystopian future, where democracy would be destroyed because citizens did not remember their own history. Huxley's vision in Brave New World involved a nation so entranced with diversion-seeking that its people voluntarily gave up democracy in favor of hypnotically sucking the pacifier of non-stop entertainment.

Today, television pundits urge people to move from one news event to another at warp speed. We are not even supposed to remember history that happened as recently as a few weeks ago.

For example, the public barely began to digest the fact that thousands of voters complained of voting irregularities in Florida. Before we could assimilate that piece of information and respond intelligently, TV talking heads and politicians badgered us to forget that story and focus on the "newer" news—that of giddily embracing a Bush presidency.

It is not in the best interest of average citizens to choose amnesia and eternal childhood over remembering history and actively participating, as mature adults would, in our nation's political life. Yes, we are all busy, and at times it appears our lives revolve only around making money and attending to only our own immediate concerns. However, focusing only on our personal lives and failing to put current events into historical context are the very behaviors that make us a nation of children and a nation of amnesiacs.

We have been instructed by media pundits and certain politics leaders to forget what happened in Florida and to blindly suck the newest media pacifier—namely, the upcoming Bush inauguration extravaganza. What should we graciously suggest our paternalistic leaders to do with that pacifier instead?

Harvard Law

The Selection of the president had very little to do with how either campaign was run. It came down to the unflinching republican tactics of obstructing a legal count in Florida during the three week post-election period, and having the high 5 fall into a shameless partisan line. Gore has a greater popular margin lead than the last few elected presidents. The UK Guardian has already printed the unofficial news that Gore carried Florida.

Now that W has backpedaled from his original choice of AG and has gone with Ashcroft, we are getting a clearer picture of who he owes big time to. America's in for a long, bumpy ride.

Bushisms

"I am mindful of the difference between the executive branch and the legislative branch. I assured all four of these leaders that I know the difference, and that difference is they pass the laws and I execute them."— GWB, Washington, D.C., Dec. 18, 2000

Oh Please!

I thought this was a travel board!! And if you want to talk about fairness, let's look at the 1960 elections in which the Democrats used the names of deceased people to vote for Kennedy. Kennedy wouldn't have won otherwise..yet he became President of the US and is considered to be one of our most revered.
And if Gore is such a morally, upstanding person, he would have asked for a TOTAL recount of the state of Florida instead of cherry picking the counties that favored him.
Perhaps if more Americans went out to vote, then we wouldn't have had this problem.

GOP

But he did.