’)Jason Zengerle at The New Republic is dismayed that in 2001, 76% of Democrats thought Bush was an illegitimate president. He compares this to recent polling showing that 52% of Republicans think ACORN stole the election for Obama.
Let’s look at the ways this is dumb.
* Obama beat McCain by 7%. He beat him by 10 million votes overall. Bush lost to Gore in the popular vote by 0.51%. Gore got over 500,000 more votes than Bush.
* The 2000 election went into a recount
* The recount was halted by Bush bringing a case to the Supreme court, adjudicated by some judges appointed by his father, using legal precedents that only somehow applied to this one case
So, in one case, we had a clear and present winner beyond dispute yet conservatives insist that a community activist group somehow stole the election for the victor.
In the other case we have a close, complicated election that involved the intervention of the Supreme court in which the winner of the lesser amount of votes was eventually sworn in as president.
Yeah, the two cases are just the same. Where’s Obama’s birth certificate?
The New Republic is horrible.
(Back in 2006, Jason Zengerle called supporters of Ned Lamont “Lamonsters”, is anyone surprised?)
Wait, people still read TNR? Huh.
TNR is the farm team for the Weekly Standard and National Review
Nobody goes from TNR to the Weekly Standard, or National Review. Not as staff anyway, maybe some of the Standard’s founders were 80s TNR neocons. Occasionally they go on to bigger and better: notable TNR alums include Michael Kinsley, Fred Barnes, Charles Krauthammer, Hendrik Hertzberg, Michael Lewis, Andrew Sullivan, Mickey Kaus, and Michael Kelly. Obviously half of those people are monsters. Also the disgraced plagiarists/fabulists Ruth Shalit and Stephen Glass. But the overwhelming majority of the underpaid (hence disproportionately rich kid) staff simply fade away.
TNR is a lot better now than in those days; the unmitigated disaster of the Bush years seems to have focused their minds a bit. Bush fucked up the Iraq War, which TNR supported without reservation, so they have actually been as partisan, anti-Republican as ever in their recent (Peretz-era) history. Obviously that’s a way for them to shirk responsibility for sponsoring that ill-conceived idiocy, but as a whole they are much better now than in the Sullivan/Kelly era.
Zengerle is a bit of a wanker, though. Last we heard of him, he was clutching his pearls at the idea that big-time lefty bloggers share emails with each other that never appear on their blogs. Also that advocacy blogs like Daily Kos don’t cover stories that don’t further their political aims. With this bit, he seems to be trying on the “pox on both parties” pose that one must affect if one wished to appear on the Sunday morning shows.
Occasionally they go on to bigger and better:
Bigger and better what, gravity wells of stoopid?
You left out that the 2000 election turned on Florida, where the difference was only a few hundred votes, Gore lost thousands of votes to the poorly designed butterfly ballot, thousands of people were purged from the voter rolls “by mistake”, the secretary of state was the Bush campaign co-chair, and the governor was Bush’s brother.
And the fla race was called by his campaign co-chair, who just happened to work for the Fox affiliate.
And Brooks Brothers rioting, KC. Don’t forget that part either.
How about the part where the Supreme Court ruling said that continuing the recount would “cause harm to Bush?” Not the Office of the President, but one particular person.
Well we couldn’t hurt his poor wittle feelings, now could we?
OW also left out that several major newspapers (including the NYTimes) said that Bush would’ve won Florida anyway, but why let facts get in the way of more BDS.
MrGreyGhost, from the Times article you linked to:
Nice try.
I wonder what our country would look like now if Gore had become President in 2001. Seriously, how different would things be right now?
I’d bet you that if Gore had won, the landscape of lower Manhattan would be a little different than it is now…
If anything, they would have built something in that hole by now.
Seriously, how different would things be right now?
Mambo – There’s no way of knowing what we’d look like today, as President Gore, no doubt, would have surrendered this great nation to the polar bears shortly after taking office.
Bitter
Good job cherry-picking. Still doesnt take away from the fact that Bush would’ve won a recount anyway or that Gore lost his own home state or that considering that Gore was VP for 2 terms under a still-popular Pres (Clinton had an over 60% approval rating upon leaving office), the race with Bush shouldn’t have even been close enough for Gore to try and steal it through the courts.
Still doesnt take away from the fact that Bush would’ve won a recount anyway
You don’t know that.
Still and all, even though I voted for him, I’m kinda glad he didn’t get sworn in. Why?
3 words; Vice-President Lieberman.
First, a pool of reporters determined in 2001 that a recount would not have swayed the Election to Gore, especially if you include the fact that NBC concluded that Gore had won Florida before the polls in the Panhandle were closed (damn that non-existent liberal media bias!).
Second, given the fact that there were few irregularities in the Election (when a Democrat wins, are there ever? I wonder what that’s about), isn’t 52% an amazingly high number? I think you are hemming and hawing, and delaying and denying, but the truth will come out. And even if the truth is that ACORN did not “win” the Election for Pres Obama, what will be discovered will turn the stomach of any lover of Democracy.
And even if the truth is that ACORN did not “win” the Election for Pres Obama, what will be discovered will turn the stomach of any lover of Democracy.
Find that birth certificate yet?
Your tinfoil hat is shiny, Frank!
Oops Bold should end after “especially“
Let me help you with your html frank:
whelp, there’s a joke ruined by the internets.
Obviously Al Gore’s fault since he invented it!
if the truth is that ACORN did not “win” the Election for Pres Obama, what will be discovered will turn the stomach of any lover of Democracy
More news from the fake pimp?
More news from the fake pimp?
That’s the latest from Orly Taitz. She’s got Obama RIGHT where she wants him. Yessirree!
(she in jail yet?)
No, but she owes a court money:
Link
So, in other words, if ACORN is guilty of massive vote fraud, and the Obama Campaign was complicit in that fraud, that would only bother you if it meant tha Pres Obama would have lost without the fraud?
Nice to see how changing Presidents affects your ethical standards.
No, Frank, in other words you’re pulling this out of your a##. There’s no evidence of “massive voter fraud” and there’s no evidence that the Obama campaign was complicit in the non-existent fraud.
If officers of ACORN (not just workers) are convicted in a court of law of conspiring to register ineligible voters, and officials in the Obama campaign are proven to have known about the effort, that would indeed be a major scandal. But please: breathless, evidence-free yellow journalism in the likes of Newsmax or World Nut Daily won’t cut the mustard.
Let me compete your thought for you Frank.
So, in other words, if ACORN is guilty of massive vote fraud,
…millions of people are in on a nationwide conspiracy and not one of them has dropped a dime or shown how it was done. In addition, these millions of people were recruited to take part in a conspiracy to effect a coup without tipping anyone off.
We should give ACORN the CIA contract.
“So, if ACORN is guilty of massive voter fraud (it isn’t), and the Obama campaign was complicit in that fraud (it wasn’t), that would….”
See, there’s no need to go further, Frank. ACORN is only guilty of BEING defrauded by some registration workers. There is NO evidence — NONE — that any actual fraudulent votes were ever cast by someone registered by an ACORN worker.
It’s a fantasy, Frank, in which conservatives can assume the role they love to play: victims of persecution by smartypants elite eggheads.
So I say “If”; you say definitely. Is this “Move along … there’s mothing to see here”? Where are the Halliburton Howls? Where are the calls for a Special Prosecutor?
You guys never fail to vindicate the old adage that “Liberals should be IN government, but never run it.” The one saving grace of the Obama Administration may be that after him, liberals will be so thoroughly discredited, it will be 100 years before they let a liberal in the White House on a tour, let alone elect one to the Presidency.
You should probably just shut up now, Frank.
Don’t you remember, mambo? The fate of the entire planet rests solely on Frank not shutting up!
So I say “If”; you say definitely. Is this “Move along … there’s mothing to see here”? Where are the Halliburton Howls? Where are the calls for a Special Prosecutor?
The hell are you talking about?
You guys never fail to vindicate the old adage that “Liberals should be IN government, but never run it.” The one saving grace of the Obama Administration may be that after him, liberals will be so thoroughly discredited, it will be 100 years before they let a liberal in the White House on a tour, let alone elect one to the Presidency.
Yeah! Especially after Obama let 3000 civilians die in the worst terror attack…no…
Or after Obama started an unnecessary war in a country unrelated…wait…
Or when Obama outed a CIA agent for political…actually…
Or that time Obama let a major American city drown…hmm…
Yup, Obama’s a big failure alright!
But hey, I guess having an extra $1.50 in your paycheck and killing brown people is more important to you than gay rights, universal health coverage, diplomacy, and everything else the conservatives screw up.
Frank, why do you hate America so much?
You said an awful lot to say nothing , Zython.
And stop calling me a racist, you anencephalic delinquent.
I am not opposed to gay rights; there will never, ever, ever, be workable universal health coverage — never — and diplomacy that leads to our defeat, such as President Apology Obama is practicing right now, is both stupid and dangerous for our country, which you, you fugitive from a video game store, couldn’t care less about.
LOUD NOISES!!!
And stop calling me a racist,
Whaa whaa.
there will never, ever, ever, be workable universal health coverage — never —
Not if you have anything to say about it, right?
such as President Apology Obama is practicing right now, is both stupid and dangerous for our country,
Yeah, because our old policy of “bomb first, ask questions later” worked out SO well.
We have many supporters of ACORN here. The concencus seems to be that ACORN is not guilty of massive voter fraud. What does the peanut gallery think the chances are that ACORN has committed some fraud on a fairly routine basis, year in and year out, election after election just not “massive” fraud? Isn’t even a little bit of fraud a bad thing? Who wants to bet Breitbart has even more damning evidence to reveal?
I think it highly likely that Breitbart has a great deal of evidence and that he plans to reveal it bit by bit to feed the fire. The man’s got balls of brass, he’s going to go toe to toe with the corrupt Democrat machine and try for some more scalps. I think he’s going to get a few.
LOL, remember only a short time ago dissent was the highest form of patriotism. Very few Americans get to do as much good for the country as Mr. Breitbart is doing. I’m sure no one here condones political corruption, let’s all wish him luck in his efforts to beam a little sunshine upon Obama’s pets at ACORN.
Who wants to bet Breitbart has even more damning evidence to reveal?
Probably not a safe bet, since he’s so adamant in not turning in the “evidence” he has to the police.
I think it highly likely that Breitbart has a great deal of evidence and that he plans to reveal it bit by bit to feed the fire.
Again, if he truly gave a shit about actual “fraud”, then why do this? Why not just reveal it all in one fell swoop and get the organization shut down?
LOL, remember only a short time ago dissent was the highest form of patriotism.
The key word here being “dissent”, not “lying”.
The only reason you and the rest of the teabaggers are calling for ACORN’s blood is because you can’t come to terms with the fact that you all only have yourself to blame for losing in 2008. America is sick of your politics, become the “Party of Personal Responsibility” and deal with it.
So what’s your point Zython? That Brietbart’s lying? LOL, roll the tape! Holder won’t do a damn thing unless his feet are held to the fire. Eric’s a corrupt political hack. LOL remember his moves with Marc Rich? To say nothing of his pass for the Black Panthers.
“Why not just reveal it all in one fell swoop and get the organization shut down?”
He’s out to get ACORN shutdown and he’s going about it in a most methodical manner.
Isn’t withholding evidence of a crime a crime in itself? Isn’t failing to report a crime a crime in itself?
That Brietbart’s lying?
Pretty much. After all, he’s a conservative, that’s what they do.
LOL, roll the tape!
The one he dubbed over?
Isn’t withholding evidence of a crime a crime in itself? Isn’t failing to report a crime a crime in itself?
I’m pretty sure it varies from state-to-state, but I’d guess probably.
Who knows, though? Maybe he just wants to release them the same day Sean Hannity releases the Michelle Obama “whitey” tapes.
He’s out to get ACORN shutdown and he’s going about it in a most methodical manner.
So you admit he has a preset agenda, and is not interested in justice or the legal system? Got it.