I am sure that I am not the only person in this country who recognizes the methodical, crucial role being played by the Palm Beach County's canvass board in the attempted Gore d'etat. Palm Beach's inability to meet the 5:00 certification deadline is obviously a calculated move on their part, the express purpose of which is to somehow "invalidate" the certified results in Florida. Obviously, there was no way that the Secretary of State's office could accept partial results--the head of the Miami-Dade board made a clear statement on this issue when announcing that his county was going to stop the recount because it was impossible to finish it in time. To accept partial results (almost surely coming from more Democratic precincts) is to disenfranchise (to use Gore's favorite word) the voters whose ballots the committee did not get around to counting. Palm Beach knew well that their partial results would not be accepted by Kathryn Harris because the law forbade her from accepting them. The failure to add in the newly-counted Gore votes from Palm Beach only adds fuel to the fire that Gore is trying to enflame in Florida. Palm Beach knew that they would not be able to invent enough votes to throw the election to Gore--as a result, they decided to throw a monkey-wrench into the official certification process. Isn't it surprising that they just happened to finish their manual recount a matter of minutes before Kathryn Harris came out to certify the election?
Many might say that the Palm Beach canvassing board actually went faster than they should have, not spending enough time on each questionable ballot--I would actually agree with that. What I would point to is this: Palm Beach knew over two weeks ago how many ballots they had to count; after they began the manual recount, they knew, more or less, how many ballots they could count in an hour; they knew that Broward County, counting a smaller number of ballots, worked over Thanksgiving. Clearly, Palm Beach could easily have met the deadline--had they chosen to do so. What they chose to do, I truly believe, is to intentionally come up a wee bit short with their counting, thus placing Secretary of State Kathryn Harris in a vulnerable position, having no legal option but to deny partial counts, from which the Gore camp could once again demonize this honorable woman in an effort to turn the public against Bush and the Republicans.
Where are we now? Bush has now won the Florida election four times. The fourth round was played on Gore's home court by Gore's own rules (thanks to the biased Florida Supreme Court), yet Bush still won. An honorable man would concede, but, unfortunately, Al Gore is not an honorable man by any stretch of the imagination. What is he going to do now? Basically, he is throwing a political temper tantrum, even pointing fingers at (and suing) members of his own party (the Democratic canvass board members in Palm Beach and Dade counties). His actions equate to a 13-year-old refusing to do what his parents tell him to do because he "knows better" and his parents "just don't understand." A good parent does not give in to such a whining fit; a good parent sends the kid to his room to "think about" what he is doing wrong.
My fellow Americans, it is time for us to do our duty and send Gore to his room.
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