Will Bush concede the election?

[wysiwyg]

If a few Kerry states have only a margin of a few thousand votes I'm doubting Bush will concede. He seems to believe he is God's chosen one and many of his supporters strongly feel the same way. I have a hard time visualizing a dignified concession speach from Bush even if Kerry wins by an indisputable margin.

Does anyone else think Bush won't concede easily?

Heaven help us if Bush wins the popular vote but not the electoral votes. On the bright side, maybe if that happened we could switch to popular vote tallys in the future and presidential campaigns wouldn't ignore 80% of the country every election.

Is anyone here saving vacation time for the weeks after the election to travel to contested states?

(edited for readability)

[alittlelark]

1. I'm going to NM to be a poll watcher

[endnote]

2. Never. They'll sue left and right

[Nancy Waterman]

5. I've been concerned about this too

I can't imagine him conceding. I think it could take a few days before the election is finalized, but I think the margin will be bigger than we are being told, and it will be hard to fight it after a few days.

Eventually, he will have to concede, but I can't imagine him being gracious or sportmanlike.

[durablend]

3. Don't expect them to concede

Even if it's decisive (in our favor).

Expect the worst.

[JuniorPlankton]

4. Over their dead bodies

(Would be a nice byproduct)

[andyhappy]

6. Hell yeah!

I was just talking to my wife about that....if Bush wins and it is suspiciously close, I am going to go to Washington where I imagine there will be a huge march!

but I hope hope hope hope it is Kerry in a landslide!

[LiberalEsto]

7. I think he's gonna throw one big spitting fit

"I have a hard time visualizing a dignified concession speach from Bush even if Kerry wins by an indisputable margin.
Does anyone else think Bush won't concede easily?"


Remember the insane fits of sputtering rage Donald Duck used to throw in the old Disney cartoons?
That fits in perfectly with my mental picture of Chimpy's reaction.

Then Tricky Dick and his pals will send in their brownshirts to do whatever rioting they deem necessary.

[RoyalWickedness]

8. Well, he didn't concede the last time he lost,

why would this time be any different? No matter how it goes down, they are going to have to drag him from the Oval Office kicking and screaming.

[liberal N proud]

9. In a straight jacket

[wysiwyg]

10. Trailed by miles of shredded documents

[Shadow30]

11. Yeah Bush is a selfish asshole...

....he won't care how it effects this country(he hasn't cared the last 4 years why start then)he will find it impossible to show any grace or consideration of anyone else.He will simply be upset that he can't be president anymore,we will have to expect the worst from him.

[LuminousX]

12. Even when the election is clearly called for Kerry, Bush won't concede

We will have to march on the White House with pitchforks and oust him in January.

[forgethell]

13. If it's a few votes in

a state, why shouldn't they sue?? We legitimized that tactic in Florida, and they will always use any new weapon. Ok, they're wrong, but they will use the same rules as we did, using the same reasoning. I felt at the time this would come back to haunt us.

Maybe no state will actually be close enough for this to happen. After all, it could be almost exactly 50-50 in some states and still be too many votes to be affected by a recount.

[Crunchy Frog]

16. I think it's pretty routine

to do recounts when things are as close as they were in Florida. I believe that the unusual thing there was in stopping the recount. I would absolutely expect recounts in states where the margin is so tiny.

From what I understand (admittedly not much) the only precedent established in Florida was in getting the Supreme Court to stop a legitimate recount.

There certainly would have been a recount if Gore had won by that margin and the Supreme Court wouldn't have stopped it either. Indeed, there would have been a recount in any election with that close of a margin.

[forgethell]

29. No, they did the recount

Bush was still a few ahead. that's when the fun began. The count was going on long after the time the Florida law said it should be over. the courts extended the time. W.hether this was right or wrong depends on your few point. Whether additional time should have been granted also depends on your viewpoint. Whether Gore would have won if the count continued also depends on your viewpoint, and which of many different polls you want to believe.

I wish Gore had won, but frankly, I think the reason punch-card ballots were being used is because they are less susceptible to fraud than some other forms, certainly than the mind-reading that seemed to be going on.

Statistically, the race was just too close. We can believe as we wish, but we will never really know who won the election. And we can't blame the "butterfly" ballots on the Repukes, a Democrat designed it.

I think this was from a conservative somewhere, but it works for us, too: "If it's not close, they can't steal it". What we have to do is turn out the vote.

[cyr330]

14. Just look at his history

He didn't win the 2000 election with the electoral vote OR the popular vote, and he still refused to concede the election. We have no reason to think that he's improved since then. In fact, he's gotten much, much worse and believes the Oval Office is his personal property.

[Crunchy Frog]

15. My hope is that he will be as undignified as possible.

It would be icing on the cake. If he won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote (highly unlikely), that would just be poetic justice, and I would gladly rub people's noses in it for a long time.

When the little shit loses, he is going to have to leave the White House, even if it's kicking and screaming.

I don't doubt that he will force recounts in contested areas, maybe then, they'll regret the electronic machines that don't create a paper trail.

Whatever they do, they will look like whiney losers.

[amazona]

17. no he will not concede

A contact of mine who works for the GOP told me before the 2000 election that, "even if it looks like Al Gore won the election, there is no way that we are going to allow him to be seated in the White House. We have attorneys in every state ready to challenge this election." I thought he was just B.S.ing until the election occurred and then I realized what he was trying to tell me. They are thieves, and I do not believe they will leave the White House peacefully. I am glad we have a combat soldier on our ticket because we are going to need someone who won't back down.

I don't believe there is any legal means by which Bush could win the popular vote. The electoral vote...who is to say...but I think we have to assume that they will cheat, lie, and steal, and we have to be willing to act.

[deadmessengers]

18. I see a couple of scenarios

One scenario is a replay of 2000, where Kerry wins the popular vote, but a ridiculously small margin separates Kerry and Shrub in a couple of decisive states. In that case, the asteriskas will take it to the courts and scream about voting irregularities (especially in states with large Hispanic immigrant populations like Florida, New Mexico, and Colorado). In this case, it'll end up at the Supreme Court, who will decide in a 5-4 vote in favor of Shrub.

Another scenario is that the election turns out to be a Kerry blowout, with some small margins in a few states, but not enough to tip the electoral college back to Shrub. In that case, I do believe that Shrub will make a halfassed concession speech, and then get to work making the last 10 weeks of his adminstration to be all scorched earth, all the time. They're going to try and fuck things up as badly as possible, to make President Kerry's job all the more difficult over his first term.

Another scenario is that it turns out to be a Shrub blowout. Then, Sen. Kerry will give a traditionally gracious concession speech. Based on the current polls, I believe this scenario to be highly unlikely.

To answer your other question - I've got vacation time saved, although not for this reason, and I live within a 5 hour drive of Florida, 7 hours from Arkansas or Missouri, an 9 hour drive to Ohio, and a 10 hour drive to PA. If volunteers are needed for a recount effort, I'm ready to go.

[gasperc]

19. I DON'T THINK BUSH WILL CONCEDE

If it's within a couple of points they'll fight it tooth and nail until they get the result they want, in other words keep recounting the votes till they win

[The empressof all]

20. No he will fight tooth and nail.

Funny last night I was thinking about this when Bruce was singing No Surrender. Our Mr Kerry is going to be in the fight of his life after his election.

[demokatgurrl]

21. No way. The election will be just the beginning of the fight-

all hell will break loose on November 3.

[nostamj]

22. if we achieve a MASSIVE TURNOUT

he will have no option BUT to concede.

the polls and the cablewhores and drone about the 'razor thin' race but, the polls are skewed and the national polls don't mean squat. (just ask Al Gore about winning the national vote)

[m_welby]

23. they will try every trick

If * loses by a few votes (or outside what the polls were predicting) you can bet that they'll scream about black box voting and diebold being hacked by terrorists for kerry or some other crap.

Thats the thing about diebolds BBV machines, if * wins they're %100 accurate and no recount (or proof of vote) is needed. If they lose then they've been hacked and the contested votes need to be thrown out.

Either way the bush team will twist it to their advantage (If we let them).

[zbdent]

24. Probably, with a "screenful of Kerry" and the electoral votes

wrapped up ensuring a Kerry win, Bush gets on the airwaves to "concede", and instead of conceding, says something to the effect:

"It's a GO!"

And then he ducks into the bunker with Cheney.

[missouri dem]

25. I think that it will be a Kerry landslide.

If they try to steal it again I will go where ever the dnc and the Kerry campaign needs me for however long it takes.

[qwlauren35]

26. I have NO DOUBT

that Bush will make an idiot of himself over this. If there's a REMOTE possibility that he can win a state, he'll demand a recount, and he won't want to step down until he's backed into a corner.

BTW, I think electoral votes should be proportional to a state's popular votes, but I must admit, with the current campaign finance laws, I think it is probably a good thing that the politicians don't have to go everywhere.

Of course, I'm in a contested state... the campaign has been in my city 3 times! But I also think, as Dean points out, that in order to truly create change, we MUST pay more attention to local races.

[wickywom]

27. Yes and he won't be able to

hide a smirk of relief...

[NewYorkerfromMass]

28. He will get snippy

again.