Robert F. Kennedy has an article in the newest edition of Rolling Stone which claims Bush stole the 2004 election. The assertion itself is ridiculous on its face, but his argument is even better. Kennedy bases his entire piece on this premise: the pollsters and their exit polls were accurate. The votes that were cast, therefore, were rigged.
Ed Morrissey has taken the time to refute Mr. Kennedy’s assertions. Here’s a portion:
Kennedy never addresses the ridiculous notion that a sample poll will have exquisite accuracy, while the real vote somehow is unreliable. As we often say, the only poll that really matters is taken behind the curtain and doesn’t rely on a pollster to conduct it. And his argument about the US government endorsing exit polling’s exquisite reliability is also fallacious. The government uses exit polling to look for massive vote fraud on a scale far outside the margin of error for exit polling, not to determine the accuracy of results to the tenth of a point. Only when exit polls show a remarkably different result than the vote counts do they come into play at all. The Ukrainian fraud did not involve a couple of percentage points, but rather a ten-point swing — and other obvious polling irregularities had already been documented, such as armed raids on polling centers.
Dan Riehl points out that NPR debunked Kennedy’s theory before his article even saw ink.
The Confederate Yankee is spot on when he said this hit piece was aimed at Ken Blackwell, a black, conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate in Ohio who, as Secretary of State in 2004, presided over and certified Ohio’s election results.
Take a look at what Kennedy says about Secretary Blackwell:
But in the battle for Ohio, Republicans had a distinct advantage: The man in charge of the counting was Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of President Bush’s re-election committee.(43) As Ohio’s secretary of state, Blackwell had broad powers to interpret and implement state and federal election laws — setting standards for everything from the processing of voter registration to the conduct of official recounts.(44) And as Bush’s re-election chair in Ohio, he had a powerful motivation to rig the rules for his candidate. Blackwell, in fact, served as the ”principal electoral system adviser” for Bush during the 2000 recount in Florida,(45) where he witnessed firsthand the success of his counterpart Katherine Harris, the Florida secretary of state who co-chaired Bush’s campaign there.(46)
Blackwell — now the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio(47) — is well-known in the state as a fierce partisan eager to rise in the GOP. An outspoken leader of Ohio’s right-wing fundamentalists, he opposes abortion even in cases of rape(48) and was the chief cheerleader for the anti-gay-marriage amendment that Republicans employed to spark turnout in rural counties(49). He has openly denounced Kerry as ”an unapologetic liberal Democrat,”(50) and during the 2004 election he used his official powers to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Ohio citizens in Democratic strongholds. In a ruling issued two weeks before the election, a federal judge rebuked Blackwell for seeking to ”accomplish the same result in Ohio in 2004 that occurred in Florida in 2000.”(51)
The Democrats just can’t accept that they lost in 2000 and 2004. As far as they are concerned, power is their right, their entitlement. Therefore, as they see it, Democrats don’t lose elections. The elections are stolen from them, which is why Kennedy puts all his eggs in his the-exit-polls-were-accurate basket. Now their target is Secretary Blackwell. And it appears that no smear is low enough for them.
Sure LeeMak Sure…whatever you say.
Turdburd
You drooled: ” Well, just as I suspected, you came up empty with facts to support your basic contention that the sky is falling and the economy is going south.”
According to the Economic Policy Institute, April 20, 2006: “Today’s CPI report allows us to examine the progress of wage growth four years out from the recession that began in March of 2001. Since then, real hourly wages have gone up by 1% in total, an annual rate of 0.2%. Real weekly wages, which reflect the diminished hours of work over much of this period, were flat, down 0.2% over the four-year period.
Note that productivity grew 16% over this period at an annual rate of 4.1% (2001q1-2004q4, the most recent available data), revealing a historically large gap between real wage growth and the productivity of our workforce.” This but one of many results from a Google search.
Anyone who pays even casual attention to reports will have heard on countless occasions about the stagnation &/or recesion of purchasing power for the average American worker in the past 5 years, not to mention the substandard wages for all the “new” jobs created under The Chimp.
As to the drivel that you quoted from Patriot Post, that is just more of Laugher Curve Moronics which you Repubs continue to try to resurrect nothwithstanding the fact that Reagan’s architect of this economic lunacy, David Stockman, recanted this bilge after the fact, years ago.
If the tax cuts really generated so much revenue, why has the national debt quadrupled in the 12 years of Reagon/Bush & then verged on doubling again in the 5 1/2 years of The Chimp? I guess from your skewed Laugher Moronics, the National debt would be many times greater than it is were it not for all the economic welfare given to the top 10% by Republicans.
BTW: the “900 trillion” was a typo & should have been 9 trillion.
In all fairness, if there’s anyone who understands vote fraud, it’s the Kennedy family. 😉
so sorry, lee! i was on a roll and working, etc. forgive me.
Cynthia, hun. “in the aftermath of hurricane Kantrina…”? just stop, sweetie. nobody wants to pick on you but, you make it so inviting!
god is watching: so shape up – liberals embrace god no more than they embrace secure borders, national security and logic.
While some of Kennedy’s arguments are spurious, the fact remains Gore won the popular vote in 2000. The Electoral College is anachronistic at best and anti-democratic at worst. In 2004, many votes were not counted- mainly for technical reasons related to the technology in poor (democratic leaning) districts.
Gore winning the popular vote is as meaningful as saying the Yankees outscored the Pirates in the 1960 World Series overall. Seeing as how the candidates aren’t STRIVING to win the national popular vote, it’s immaterial.
As for votes not being counted primarily in Democratic counties — I imagine proof will be forthcoming.
Only in the US, where Republicans can turn out pluralities of voters due to non-participation of nearly 50% or more of the electorate, can they obtian victories when most of their voters are part of the Middle Class.
They won in 2004 with the majority of the country voting.
This is because the typical GOP voter earning less than $100K/year is completely ignorant of the economic issues confronting him/her & his/her family. Instead, the Republican candidates are able to push hot-button issues w/ strong emotional pull & thus fool their typical voter into voting contrary to his economic issues.
Ah, the Democratic mantra in its most basic form:
Republican voters are too stupid to know better.
Always a winning formula for elections.
For example, while the US macro-economy appears to be robust, the reality is that the wage & purchasing power of most American workers has been completely static or declined since 2001.
Any proof of this would be lovely.
Sorry, but no matter how you stand Reason on it’s head, in December of 2000, The Chimp was appoiunted president by SCOTUS, and then barely, w/ a 5-4 split.
The Court stopped the recount in FL. That is tantamount to appointment, not a procees in democracy called “counting the vote.”
Stopping a recount in 4 counties, rather than in an entire state. C’est la vie.
Like it or not, Katherine Harris ALONE had the power to certify the election and did so.
Just because the FL Supreme Court, laden with Dems, wished to re-write electoral law after the fact for Florida doesn’t make Bush illegitimate.
Kennedy is right, it’s an amazing assembly of facts that shows precisely how badly the Republicans have screwed this nation out of a fair election.
Except he has been thoroughly disproven, repeatedly, for years.
Time for a hint: Vote totals are more accurate than skewed exit polls.
Every day I meet people who surprise me with the anger they express towards Republicans and Bush.
I’ll stick my neck out and predict we won’t see a Republican president for 20 years once Bush leaves office, and it’s a good bet that the Democrat-led Congress which takes over after this November election will have turned things around before 2008.
It will be a pleasure to hear the little piggies squeal in horror.
Care to place money on this?
& then the “democratic” solution after the 7-2 vote would have been to order a statewide recount, which was Gore’s original misstake in asking for only 3 counties.
BUT
The activist conservatives, in the true “originalist’s” spirit decided to take the election out of the hands of the voter and appoint a Chimp as the Originlist Founding Fathers might have preferred in any event w/ their original Constitutional design.
Let’s take the vote away from women & non-property owners as originally intended and let the state legislative bodies choose the president as was done in the old-fashioned way. Then we could really boast about “Americaqn Democracy” to the rest of the world.
Sadly, there is a explicitly stated period of time for challenges. If Gore decided to wait until the very end to ask for a statewide recount (which, mind you, Bush would’ve won anyway) — that’s his problem.
The FL Supreme Court tried to re-write election law after the fact. Tough shit.
And, while your wage status may have improved since 2001, the vast majority of your peers have seen their purchasing power decline or remain stagnant at best.
Again, evidence to back that up.
Please.
In addition, the vast majority of jobs created under the Chimp’s economy are for wages substantially lower than prior lost-job compensation.
And you can prove THIS too, right?
Or are you just lying?
When Carter left office in 1981, the National debt was a little over 1 trillion. When Reagan/Bush left office in ’93, the debt stood at 4.4 trillion, a 400% jump over all the previously accumulated debt.
Control of the House, who controls the spending, during that entire time? Democrats.
When Clinton left in ’01 it was about 5.75 trillion, and, unlike Reagan?Bush, the Clinton budget had actually begun to provide surpluses.
Surpluses based on absurd assumptions of non-stop economic growth that — to be generous — are impossible.
Oh, and who was in charge of the House for almost all of Clinton’s reign? Republicans.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Kantrina, we saw the homeless.
And we all saw the lines of people that showed up to vote in Ohio and could not. We saw it with our own eyes. We saw with our own eyes the 50,000 people who are on record of coming forward with voting complaints. and there were thousands more behind them. We saw with our own eyes the hearing in the basement of Congress because of the hate that spews from the right at anybody with a different opionion. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.
God is indeed watching and we are going to do everything decent and honorable and loyal to our country so that we can to ensure that yours and my communities experience a fair and free election.
I have yet to hear the argument why we should not ensure our vote counts. What’s the harm in making sure your vote is counted?
Yes, it’s the right who is discussing assassinating people. Happens all of the time.
The only, you know, ACTUALLY PROVEN cases of voter fraud involved Dems.
And the 50,000 number? Prove that, too. I’ve noticed the left loves tossing out numbers at random.
So, feel free to prove any of your allegations. I know I heard the same thing in 2000 about blacks who were blocked from voting in FL.
You know how many blacks had a complaint of ANY legitimacy?
One.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, April 20, 2006: “Today’s CPI report allows us to examine the progress of wage growth four years out from the recession that began in March of 2001. Since then, real hourly wages have gone up by 1% in total, an annual rate of 0.2%. Real weekly wages, which reflect the diminished hours of work over much of this period, were flat, down 0.2% over the four-year period.
EPI? BWA HA HA HA!
A “progressive” policy institute MIGHT have a bit of an axe to grind.
Hell, they champion increasing the minimum wage as a good idea, showing that they are clueless on basic economics (how many people actually get paid minimum wage in this country? 3% of workers).
If the tax cuts really generated so much revenue, why has the national debt quadrupled in the 12 years of Reagon/Bush & then verged on doubling again in the 5 1/2 years of The Chimp? I guess from your skewed Laugher Moronics, the National debt would be many times greater than it is were it not for all the economic welfare given to the top 10% by Republicans.
Out-of-control social spending. Really, not a hard answer. Bush’s refusal to curb it belies the claims that he’s “far right” on much of anything.
-=Mike
Cynthia way back^
Were not worried about votes being counted once, its the lefts attempt to make up votes and let dead votes count that is very offensive.
are there alternative explanations to your rather speculative and ad hominem theory that democrats can’t accept that they lost the election?
“This is because the typical GOP voter earning less than $100K/year is completely ignorant of the economic issues confronting him/her & his/her family.”
. . . an exquisitely perfect example of snoot-in-the-air liberal elitist spew.
are there alternative explanations to your rather speculative and ad hominem theory that democrats can’t accept that they lost the election?
No.
-=Mike
MikeSC, try thinking. There’s a principle called Occam’s Razor: All things being equal, the simplest explanation is most likely correct. Also, try examining the facts, instead of ignoring them or brushing them off with some irrational, childish, and contemptuous comments like that. This isn’t about people or candidates. it’s about an election system, OUR election system, which affects everyone. do you want to live in a dictatorship? do you really want that to happen? is ignorance worth it? because irrationallity like that is the quickest path to it. Seriously, you think this is funny? Grow up.
Kevin – “do you want to live in a dictatorship? do you really want that to happen?” What kind of fool are you?
I asked you first.
Who will be the first one two type in two words in google and press search?