Clinton:

January 9, 2001 10:51 PM

Clinton: "They thought the election was over, the Republicans did. By the time it was over, our candidate had won the popular vote, and the only way they could win the election was to stop the voting in Florida". Give 'em hell Bill!
posted by owillis (16 comments total)

The Republicans stopped the voting? Man ... I was in Florida and no one told me the voting started back up again!
posted by rcade at 11:11 PM on January 9, 2001

Blah, Florida. I'm more concerned with the fate of Socks.
posted by gluechunk at 11:34 PM on January 9, 2001

Getting back to the article (though naturally my sympathies go out to Socks and I do hope that he and that brute Buddy are finally able to patch things up) -- but getting back to the article, my favorite part was:
Many Democrats feel Republicans stole the election from Gore, who won the popular vote by a half million votes nationwide but lost a court battle over disputed ballots. Republicans on the other hand believe Gore was trying to steal the election from Bush by trying to get votes recounted in heavily Democratic counties of Florida.
I mean, did anyone have to be set straight on this? Are they now explaining things over at Yahoo for the aliens?

In any case, on Clinton's "stop the voting" comment, he probably meant "stop the vote-counting".
posted by leo at 12:04 AM on January 10, 2001

Well, considering Jeb's cronies were running around the state closing voting booths while people were still in line, they stopped the vote.
posted by owillis at 12:12 AM on January 10, 2001

How does Clinton think he can mediate between Israelis and Palestinians if he can't even bring Buddy and Socks together? Some peacemaker he is.
posted by straight at 5:46 AM on January 10, 2001

Clinton should watch it. I like the guy, but he's starting to gloat and look like that kid in junior high who thought he knew everything. The Florida vote went through the same system that let him off the hook for lying about his trollop so let it go.
posted by girard at 7:54 AM on January 10, 2001

Gore did not win the popular vote. In most of the states, where the difference between 1st and 2nd place was greater than the outstanding absentee ballots, they didn't count the absentee ballots. My state voted for Bush. KY didn't, in fact, count the absentee ballots. BTW, Bush beat Gore by ~230,000 votes in KY - Gore had only ~500,000 nationally over Bush.

So when people bitch about how Gore won the popular vote, it shows a cetain level of ignorance. Its true, though, that California didn't count it's absentee ballots either. So its hard to say who ACTUALLY had the popular vote. You can't claim the popluar vote either way until you count all the absentee ballots, too.
posted by jamescblack at 8:08 AM on January 10, 2001

KY didn't, in fact, count the absentee ballots. BTW, Bush beat Gore by ~230,000 votes in KY - Gore had only ~500,000 nationally over Bush.

This isn't true. Kentucky counted all the absentee votes and this report includes them -- I called the secretary of state's office to confirm this.


posted by rcade at 8:29 AM on January 10, 2001

Its true, though, that California didn't count it's absentee ballots either.

California finished counting too -- in early December if I recall correctly.
posted by rcade at 8:44 AM on January 10, 2001

so much for showing a "certain level of ignorance"...
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 11:41 AM on January 10, 2001

oops I mean a Cetain level of ignorance...
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 11:42 AM on January 10, 2001

It's not so much the ignorance that bugs me, as the arrogance...

Imagine, a Bush supporter bitching that all the votes weren't counted.
posted by jpoulos at 1:02 PM on January 10, 2001

I think the point that James was trying to make (above) is that Democrats have been saying (often in the same breath) that "every vote should count" and "Gore won the popular vote." These arguments, when together, don't work. While it seems that all of these states are reporting to have counted the absentee ballots, the reports of the numbers of votes thrown out nationwide is somewhere over 2 million. Now, these are invalid votes by the State's standards, but so were many of the ones Gore wanted to recount in Florida (albeit only in 4 Democratic Counties). So, it remains to be seen that if we were to actually count the 180,000 or so "invalid" votes from Cooke County, Illinois or other State's "invalid" votes, etc. as Gore requested, where the popular vote would finally stand.

Don't count every improper vote--Gore has the popular vote. Count the votes that match the same standards Gore's lawyers proposed in Florida, hence "a fair, and accurate recount of _every_ vote" and the popular vote could swing back to Bush. Who knows. Point is, if you believe in Gore's argument and standard, then you can't claim a popular vote that wasn't counted "fairly" in all 50 States.

And, as an aside, can't we all find some bipartisan forgiveness for a couple of typos?
posted by wwz at 2:50 PM on January 10, 2001

Thought I might throw this in the mix just for fun.
posted by wwz at 2:58 PM on January 10, 2001

Bill: "An unusual system in Washington state, they actually count all the votes". Boo-yah! Bubba's on a roll...
posted by owillis at 3:18 PM on January 10, 2001

Mr. Black may be confusing the results that were published in various newspapers for weeks, which did not include absentee ballots, simply because they were not the final results. I find it inconceivable that someone would believe they just don't count them. I've heard tell there's about a hundred other races on most ballots that weren't subject to dire jeopardy-of-the-republic-if-we-wait-to-count-them pronouncements.

"We cannot wait until January of 2001, which is not only next year, but next century and next millennium. We must know who the dogcatcher is lest canine chaos ensue!"
posted by dhartung at 8:53 PM on January 10, 2001