Commencts on the 2000 Election, Novenber 27, 2000

I should be more specific, these are comments on the 2000 presidential election.

The results are in, and, presently, George W. Bush has been declared the winner, but Al Gore is contesting the election. Personally, at this point I think most of the public doesn't really care who "wins."

It is obvious, in fact, that both Al Gore and George W. Bush have lost the election. Further, whoever occupies the White House at the end of January this year is the bigger looser.

That is because whoever is in the White House will have doubts about his legitimacy, and he will be facing a congress that will be very interested in now wanting to be associated with the presidency.

After all, the either president will have shown himself to be very oportunistic in the minds of the voters, particularly that set of voters who call themselves independent, and no party can win the white house without support of the independents.

In the case of George Bush, he showed his "win at any cost" attitude when he fought recounting the ballots. A proper presidential attitude would have been, when confronted with Al Gore's request for a recount, for him to say, "Good, let's recount the entire State of Florida," and for him to have done everything in his power to have brought it to pass. By not doing this, he's "win at any cost" attitude is showing.

Siminarly, Al Gore, when confronted with the fact that he had slightly fewer votes than Bush could have said, as it was reported the Nixon said in 1960, "Congratulations on your win." (Note: I think that Al Gore not conceeding on election night was appropriate, since Florida law required a recount and that result wasn't in yet. It might have really been embarassing if he conceeded, then a recount showed him ahead, as by definition it may have.)

I think there was one winner in this election, however. That is Ralph Nader, and especially the Green Party. The reason is that they were recognized as a force in this election, and got a lot of press as a result. Also, by not taking 5? of the vote the Green party has no possibility of falling apart due to the strains caused by everyone as his brother discovering their "Green" roots, as one commentator put it. This could result in the same disaster for the Green party as happened to the Reform party in this election.

This has made the Green party very visible so that it can, and has, started parties in many new states, one being Kansas. And, it should be remembered that the Green Party is more interested in winning local elections than in the presidency. In fact, it has been said that Ralph Nader, who is not a member of the Green party, is only "in the neighborhood" of the Green party ideals. Presumably the day may come when people will come up through the ranks.