Wow. Some Dems still clinging to the ‘Gore won’ meme

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When I saw this on Twitter:

— Salon.com (@Salon) November 10, 2014

I clicked on the link for the purpose of delving into how the hopelessly ideological (by which I mean, whoever wrote that headline) look at things.

It wasn’t very interesting. But my eyebrows did rise at this:

The answer given by the media then, and often proffered today as well by the Democrats is “It’s the economy, stupid.” They didn’t give that explanation up when Reaganomics produced heavy economic losses for working people who continued to vote Republican, and they didn’t give that explanation up when the Clinton/Gore years produced a booming economy and yet Gore lost (OK, he won but for the Supreme Court, but that was only made possible because of how close the vote was—and why would it have been so close if “the economy” is the determining issue?)…

Wow. Some liberals are still clinging to the “Gore really won” fantasy.

In case any of you still cling to that, it is patently untrue.

Sometime after the legal battle in Florida ended, a consortium of media organizations completed a recount of all the ballots. Actually, they completed several different recounts, using different sets of rules (as you’ll recall, much of the controversy during the Long Count in 2000 was over which set of rules to use).

Bush won the recount that the Gore people claimed was short-circuited by the courts.

Ironically, had there been a total recount of the entire state, the media recount indicates Gore might have won, by as few as 60 votes. However, using the rules in place on Election Day (and I still don’t understand how a reasonable person would expect any other set of rules), Gore still wouldn’t have won:

Gore’s narrow margin in the statewide count was the result of a windfall in overvotes. Those ballots — on which a voter may have marked a candidate’s name and also written it in — were rejected by machines as a double vote on Election Day and most also would not have been included in either of the limited recounts….

So yeah… for good or ill, Bush won.

4 thoughts on “Wow. Some Dems still clinging to the ‘Gore won’ meme”

  1. Brad Warthen Post author

    Well, double Wow…

    On the very same day, here’s another mention of the “Gore won” canard, at The Wonkette:

    Here’s some shock-and-awing political insight from the man who never had a gig his daddy didn’t set up for him. From the champagne unit of the National Guard, to the Texas governorship, to the state of Florida his brother rigged for him, to the special one-time-only Bush v. Gore present gifted by the Supreme Court, we are pretty certain George Dubya Bush never would have usurped his way to power if not for his powerful family….

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  2. Barry

    BTW- that article is really silly. (I notice no mention of liberal churches- especially the large- very politically active black churches)

    They certainly don’t describe any church I’ve been a part of and I’ve only attended conservative churches – some very small- a couple very large. (None of my pastors have ever talked politics from the pulpit . i can only recall one instance where a pastor of mine actually mentioned an election date)

    I think articles like that make them feel better though- so they write that nonsense.

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