What's with all the Kerry bashing?

[Jack Rabbit]

This is unpardonable.

I went to bed last night when Ohio hung by a thread. I was surprised this morning it hadn't fallen. It was just a matter of time.

Bush led by 135,000 with about 175,000 provisional ballots to be counted. That means that only if almost all of those provisional ballots are bona fide and almost all of them are cast for Kerry does Kerry have a chance. Figure the odds.

Concession was in order.

[freetobegay]

1. I would say the majority of them never wanted Kerry to begin with.

Now is not the time for the blame game.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

5. But the "blame game" has already started....

...it started earlier today with South-bashing, and now it's Kerry-bashing. Pretty soon it will expand to bashing anyone in the Democratic Party.

We eat our own, don't you know.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

19. I won't bash Kerry.

[TrustingDog]

31. neither will I, he was Magnificent. It's just the other team is so

damned ugly and dishonest.

I was dissappointed at Kerry's easy concession, but I believe there are people working as we speak to try to fix this big wrong. His drawing out the 'election' would only alienate and remind everyone of the 2000 horror.

have faith (not the Bush kind, the Real kind). Have faith but work your ass off and please do not blame anyone but the filthy machinery that has been working since the Reagan days. Those same people are responsible for this... the PNACers.

[cms424]

2. Thank you for being reasonable

I cannot believe the manic reactions I am reading to the concession announcement. Go ahead and be angry - but let's stop the Kerry bashing and the conspiracy theories and figure out what went wrong.

[redsoxliberal]

8. I spent time and money on this campaign

not to mention agreat deal of my soul... and we lose our best shot. We can't beat anyone if we can't beat Bush.

[OrwellwasRight]

18. Opposing concession is not Kerry-bashing

any more than opposing the war is opposing the troops.

As rabid Democrats we have a right (no, a responsibility) to continue criticizing what we see as weak moves in order to replace them with better moves. That is not "bashing."

The people who do deserve to be bashed are the people who voted based on selfishness, hatred, and fear and then try to put us down as not being religious enough.

I don't know where these people went to Sunday School, but the biggest thing I remember the church teaching me is the Golden Rule. If so-called Evangelical Christians would practice a bit of "do unto others," we would all be better off. And we wouldn't have a murderer in the WH.

I support Kerry, but I don't support concession.

[bbernardini]

3. So we should just ignore the obvious fraud and disenfranchisement?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. Of course! But let's bash Southerners and Kerry first!

[samtob]

11. Media, did you get any sleep at all last night?

I saw you in here after midnight (MST) and you have some very early posts. I am running on 3 hrs sleep (by accident did not mean to fall asleep) You must be exhausted. We do not always agree, but you have my admiration.

[Ninga]

4. And, let's see now, you know EXACTLY how many provisional ballots were

cast??????

About 170,000...is it possible there were more?

I live in NE Ohio and there were over 150 provisionals cast at my polling place.....

I have heard upwards of 250,000 provisional ballots being cast.

[MercutioATC]

7. Why was concession "in order"?

What did it accomplish?

[Ducks In A Row]

9. Bullshit. Giving up is betrayal

but I'm not surprised. Kerry was never the correct candidate. I had hopes when he was smart enough to pick Edwards.

He is a coward and a fool to give up now

[usmail]

12. Edwards was a mistake

Lieberman would have brought in more votes. We knew from day one Edwards couldn't even carry his own state. Lieberman would have pulled more undecided voters. Remember, the general population isn't as "hardcore" as Democrats voting in primaries.

[Dukakis88]

16. Lieberman is worse than a Republican.

I could barely stomach voting for him in 2000. Held my nose and did it.

[The_Counsel]

22. Um... The Undecideds Broke 2:1 For Kerry...

...I don't see how Lieberman would have been much more help there.

Maybe among Jewish-Americans, but that prolly wouldn't have amounted to much.

[OrwellwasRight]

29. I'm sorry, but Lieberman?

Lieberman is more conservative than some Republicans. I hate to keep repeating my same theme, but the answer to getting this country on the progressive track is not to veer right. When we veer right, the right controls the issues and the agenda.

Had we picked Lieberman, you would have seen the Greens and Nader pick up 5-10% of the popular vote. Lieberman has no base in places like CA, DC, and NY. He would have alientated our core.

We must be progressive, aggressive, and proud to be liberal.

[usmail]

10. It's not his fault

I think Kerry blew the opportunity of a lifetime. He took bad advice from incompetent people. The words I believe we should... are much more powerful than I have a plan...

[liberal N proud]

13. He rolled over before the ballots were even counted

I know the did not count my ballot in Ohio, They are reporting that the absentee ballots have not been counted.

[FatSlob]

14. I'm very impressed with Senator Kerry's behaviour after the election.

He is going about this the right way. Let us move on to the midterm elections.

[Arneoker]

15. What's with all the Kerry-bashing?

People are being childish.

[Horushawk]

17. Concession MY ASS!!!

FUCK BUSH AND KERRY!!!

KERRY is a DNC roll over dog

[nickinSTL]

20. Will Kerry keep his promise?

Will he fight to have every vote counted?

He concedes, despite the large number of uncounted votes and allegations of fraud, and I'm supposed to support that?

Sorry, no.

[Pacifist Patriot]

21. Disappointment and dismay I would imagine.

[The_Counsel]

23. He Told Us "I Got Your Back..."

...and then apparently conceded with as many as 350,000 total votes uncounted in Ohio, and some obvious shadiness in Florida.

Kerry recently went on record as saying Al Gore gave up too easily four years ago, only to himself give up some THIRTY-FIVE DAYS SOONER than Gore.

He sent John Edwards out to say "we waited four years; we can wait a little longer. Count all the votes!" Then he concedes "for the good of the country."

This is, quite possibly, the best example of "flip-flopping" I've seen yet. "Why bash Kerry?" Shit, why NOT bash Kerry. He let us down. Dean could have been more wrong than two left shoes. He could have been 100 electoral votes down with all precints reporting; but I bet he would have fought the cause. Kerry did not.

I like what another poster said earlier: If you can't beat George W. Bush, you can't beat anybody...

[kskiska]

24. They did it to Al Gore, too

If the bashers have the perfect candidate under wraps somewhere, please produce him/her.

[UpsideDownFlag]

25. ..what's with kerry conceding??

at least gore put up a fight.

[orlin2k]

26. The courts in Ohio are conservative

It's a losing fight. Kerry was a great candidate but Karl Rove was right in his idea to get the Christian fundies out and vote by scaring them into thinking "the gays" would take over. It sucks but we have to move on and get to work.

[scarpa43]

27. I was thinking about this....

I think Kerry did the right thing.

Lets say that every outstanding vote went his way and he went over 270 EC votes, he would still be over 3,000,000 short in the overall popular vote.
After 4 years of calling Bush "selected, not elected" how would it look if a Dem got into office with 3,000,000 fewer popular votes than a Rep?

[The_Counsel]

28. Well...

"Lets say that every outstanding vote went his way and he went over 270 EC votes, he would still be over 3,000,000 short in the overall popular vote."

Seeing as how it's the Electoral College that elects the President, that would be fine by me...


"After 4 years of calling Bush "selected, not elected" how would it look if a Dem got into office with 3,000,000 fewer popular votes than a Rep?"

It would look like "poetic justice."

The "selected, not elected" thing came from the Supreme Court stepping in and stopping the recount, not from a popular vote deficit.

Kerry should have fought -- especially considering the things he and John Edwards have recently said on this very subject. We're SUPPOSED to be the greatest country on Earth. We should be able to take it...

[Seabiscuit]

30. He broke his vow to us not to quit until every vote was verified.

Duh. How can you not get it? Rove was right in the end: Kerry really is a "flip-flopper".