How can Bush Run for Reelection?

[soupkitchen]

When he wasn't elected in the first place. His campaign should be called, The Bush ReSelelection Campaign. And the Supreme Court can be be his ReSelection Committe.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Re-defeat Bush in 2004!

n/t

[Ergotron]

2. Bush WAS elected in 2000, he just didn't receive the most popular votes

The electoral college DID elect Bush, like it or not. It's the way the system works. Now, perhaps Bush did not receive the most popular votes, but that's NOT how the system works.

[soupkitchen]

4. Well thats true

But then don't ever tell anybody that the American people elect their president.

[Fovea]

5. I do not consider the Supreme Court intervening in the election process

to have returned a valid result to the electoral college. Now it also turns out that 90 thousand florida voters were illegally shrubbed .

This is no better than the Soviet Union.

George Bush has never been the duely elected President of the United States, and a good argument can be made for nullifying all illegal acts of an illegal administration.

[Enraged_Ape]

7. No, that's not how the system works

Although you are technically correct about the electoral college, you conveniently omit the rest of the story.

Florida law is unequivocal in its counting of "all votes wherein the clear intent of the voter is determined". Despite what Rush Limbaugh tells you, this was never done in Florida. The so-called "overvotes"--mostly for Gore--were kicked out by the machines and never counted, not even once. So the results were illegal under Florida law.

Secondly, there never was a "Constitutional crisis" except in the minds of Fox News producers. If the Electoral College hadn't met, Congress could have chosen the President, and they may have chosen Bush anyway. But the SC couldn't take that chance, given the results of the popular vote. So the results were unconstitutional as well.

I won't get into voter roll purges, intimidation tactics, etc.

The system was gamed in Florida. The election was a shame. Get over it.

[Pltcl_jnky]

10. the SC selected nothing

read the court ruling...all their decision said was that the state of Florida could not hand count certain selective counties. If they were going to count the vote sby hand then they had to count ALL the votes of the entire state by hand. Basically they said that if you hand count all the votes in those certain counties then the equal protection rights of the other counties voters who ballots may have been thrown out due to vote machine error would not have their voted properly examined and counted and therefore not be treated equally under the law.

The case then went back to the Florida Supreme Court who ruled that the recounts in those few counties had to stop as per the ruling of the US Supreme Court. Al Gore has NEVER sought a full statewide recount therefore the election was over at that point and the vote totals that had been counted twice by the standard counting computers were certified and Bush is president.

So we can yammer on and on about the SC selecting the president. They never stated the hand recounts HAD TO STOP, all they stated was that if you were going to do hand counts then all votes had to be recounted.

The bottom line is under our system of government he was elected president while receiving 500,000 thousands less votes than Gore. But that is our system and if we go into 04 with this he was not elected bullshit and whine and bitch and piss and moan that he stole the election he is going to win in a landslide as people are sick of the shit. There is enough to beat him on without having to drudge up bullshit, and that is exactly what this excuse is bullshit, excuses from 4 years ago!!!

[RaulGroom]

11. A lot of this is false

"all their decision said was that the state of Florida could not hand count certain selective counties."

That would have made some sense... My understanding is that the equal protection ruling had to do with the varying standards of manual recounts across the state.

That's why they had to put in the part about it not applying to other decisions, because as written the ruling invalidated all hand recounts, which is the only accepted way of settling disputed machine counts.

Apologists for the Supremes are fond of telling people what's they will find "if you read the decision," but in reality the decision is turgid, nonsensical, and ultimately pretty worthless. You could learn more about election law by reading the back of a box of Pop Tarts.

[Zero Gravitas]

13. Thankyou Fox News

:eyes:

The Florida Supreme Court ordered a STATEWIDE manual count of the vote, and it was that ruling that was overturned by the SCOTUS. SO the SC prevented a count of the undervote in ALL COUNTIES, not just a few, the ruling DID NOT allow for a full count of the vote. I don't recall what the twisted logic of the 5-4 decision was, but they wanted to stop ALL counting of votes in FL so "thier" guy would "win".

So the election was stolen, it is sickening that so few care.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/12/08/scofla.ruling.pol/

[Enraged_Ape]

14. Again, you conveniently forget (or ignore) a couple of things

The Supreme Court stopped the recount, and precluded any future recounts. Gore should have asked for a full state recount on Nov. 7 and didn't, but the fact was made moot by the Supreme Court when THEY STOPPED ALL COUNTING.

Secondly, you are forgetting that Scalia said that the counting must stop because it would "threaten irreparable harm to petitioner (Bush) ... by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election." Gee, I don't know, it sounds to me like Scalia was already presuming a winner in this election and handed it to him before all votes were legally counted. But you can spin it any way you want.

And, BTW, this IS relevant. Florida played a lot of specious games in 2000. Their masters are looking to play them again in 2004, as well as broaden their field to California.

[MissMillie]

16. The court ruling didn't make or break the election

It was the thousands of voters purged from the voter registration lists. This election was in the bag for * before even one vote was cast.

Of course, it would have been nice if it all hadn't hinged on FL. The election really was Gore's to lose, and lose it he did.

[The_Counsel]

8. You're Forgetting The Small Matter...

...of 25 disputed electoral votes from Florida that were handed over to Bush by the Supreme Court.

Face it, friend: he was SElected...

[Zero Gravitas]

12. Stolen Election

There were more valid votes cast for Gore in FL than for the silly usless little man currnetly occupying the White House. IF the SCOTUS had not intervened for political reasons Gore would be President (the FLSC ordered a state wide full count of the vote).

[ComerPerro]

15. But the electoral college did not elect Bush

Because when all of the votes were actually counted in Florida, it turned out that Gore won Florida. Of course, this was revealed in August of 2001. And we all know what happened in September of that year....

[Yupster]

17. The electoral college are not numbers on paper

They are actual people who cast actual ballots.

The electoral college actually did elect Bush.

Whether it was fair or fraudulent is another story, but the electoral college did vote for and elect Bush. I watched them vote all day on tv.

[Enraged_Ape]

3. It would violate his civil rights to run again

His poll numbers are dropping so fast, it would be absolutely humiliating and disgraceful for him to run against any of our candidates. I can see where this would be enough of a violation of his civil rights that the SC could use Bush v. Gore as a precedent to reinstall him before the campaigning even starts.

I'm only half-kidding.

[ArkDem]

6. Because money talks

http://www.opensecrets.org/presidential/index.asp

[Davis_X_Machina]

9. Committe to Re-Appoint the President....

or CRAP.