Baffled and amazed

The two Johnnies (and their lawyers) must be the only people in America who still think they have a chance to pull this thing off. But they can't. And still they refuse to admit it.

Unless Kerry gets Ohio, Bush will have at least 269 electoral votes (though he probably has New Mexico and Iowa too). Even if Bush only gets 269, the final decision will result from a special vote in the House of Representantives, which is controlled by the Republicans. Bush won the popular vote handily, so I doubt too many would be inclined support Kerry in this vote.

So Kerry has to win Ohio. Currently Bush is winning by 2.5% with only provisional ballots to be counted. There are about 150,000 of these ballots and Bush's vote count lead is about 125,000. The provisional ballots would almost all have to be accepted and all go the Kerry for him to win. There were many strange reports coming from Ohio before the election about registration fraud: bogus names, trading registration lists for crack, the dead rising to vote. Are these the types of votes Kerry wants to validate for his win? Does he and his legal team even imagine how dirty the fight over them could get?

Kerry's shown he's no Michael Dukakis or Walter Mondale. He did pretty well, but he still lost. He can still accept his defeat gracefully and become a distinguished elder statesman for his party. But he's running out of time -- he better do it soon.

UPDATE: I can't remember where I read that Bush had 269 electoral votes, but it doesn't appear to be right. He has 254 for sure, and probably has New Mexico (5), Iowa (7), and Ohio (20). So only Ohio matters now. But there's no 'razor-thin' margin there, it's still a 2.5% gap -- completely insurmountable. Give it up, John.

Posted by Bruce Gottfred at November 3, 2004 08:33 AM | TrackBack