I have a question to all of the people trashing Kerry for giving up

[timeforachange]

If the roles were reversed and Kerry had won Ohio by 140,000 votes on election night and Bush the next day brought an army of lawyers screaming voter fraud by the democrats and that the democrats stole the election, how would you react?

[tkmorris]

1. That rather depends

If the situation were TRULY reversed, and the Democrats had engaged in shenanigans like:

The CEO of the company manufacturing a great many of the voting machines and tabulators had promised to "deliver Ohio to Kerry", and

The Democratic Supervisor of Elections in Ohio had tried to reject Republican voter registrations because the paper they were printed on "wasn't thick enough", and

Democratic poll watchers went to court to gain the right to invade middle and upper class white polling places for the sole purpose of challenging their ballots, and

Democrats had demonstrably stolen the Presidential election the previous cycle, and

Democratic tycoons owned over 90% of the US media and had been producing "news" content that resembled the Pravda in the old Soviet Union, and

Well, you get the idea. If all that were true I would so embarassed by my party I would have switched sides, or more likely declared myself a Green, and I would be cheering any attempt to restore honesty and integrity to the process.

Does that answer your question?

[City Lights]

10. Amen! eom

[charlie]

2. I'd say "tough toenails chumps"

Like I'm ever going to worry about that pack of gangsters we now call Republicans thinks.

[incapsulated]

3. Completely unsurprised

Unlike Dems, the rethugs don't stop until they win or die trying.

[bigtree]

4. I've got a better question

Have you given up?

[timeforachange]

5. changing 140,000 vote outcome

is not realistic.

Sorry.

If it was under 50,000 votes, the provisional ballots may have made a difference, but if we couldn't win when the margin is 537 votes in Florida, what makes anyone think we could triumph over these insane margins in comparison?

I've always been a realist. It just wasn't going to happen. Kerry did the right thing. More damage would have been done to the democratic party if he drew this out, especially with the 140,000 vote margin being what it was.

[bigtree]

7. we have a responsibility as citizens to ensure that every vote is counted

Whose vote is languishing somewhere? A soldiers? Someone desperate for healthcare? Someone who is being oppressed by this administration? Yours?

[City Lights]

11. And if they get away with a 140,000 rigged victory this time, how big

will the rigged margin be next time?

We may not be able to change the outcome this time, but we need to use this time to open people's eyes for next time, and we need to use as much evidence as possible to try and cast doubt on the legitimacy of _chimpy's "victory."

My issue with Kerry is not so much that he conceeded, but that he - at least publicy - doesn't seem concerned about the mounting evidence that fraWd ran rampant.

[sherilocks]

6. We'll never know, will we?

What the truth is. How many provisional ballots were there? How many were justified? Did we allow the repugs to make these challenges and then, as John Edwards promised he would not do, let them sit without counting them and verifying the challenges?

Just winning is not the point. These are uncounted votes. Nobody had to scream, just exercise the right to get all the votes counted. If that's screaming, well so be it.

The Democrats had the opportunity to investigate all the possibilities of voter fraud. Maybe this would not change the outcome, but at least change the voting systems and make them safer and more reliable. Now things will remain the same for years to come.

[meti57b]

8. If we are nice to the republicans, they will be nice to us, is that it??

okay, I get it.

[bemildred]

9. I want an honest vote, and all the votes counted everywhere,

insofar as that is possible, and a well-funded smooth-running
election system. If Repuke lawyers can do that for
me, I'll help pay them for it.