Both sides had reasonable points, and reasonable grievances. But Al Gore was running for president, not Santa. The procedure he chose--and stuck with, until a court told him to knock it off--was not fair. And by the time the case hit the Supreme Court, his supporters (and the Florida Supreme Court) had already invested a huge amount of credibility in coming up with creative reasons that it should happen anyway. -Megan McArdle Go To Site

The original sin, in my view, was Gore's attempt to recount just the votes in a few heavily Democratic counties. I'm not saying that Bush would have done any different, had the positions been reversed. But once that had happened--and Democrats on local election boards and the Florida Supreme Court had decided to go along--there was no longer even a pretense that this was about anything other than naked post-facto power grabs, using whatever political levers your party controlled. -Megan McArdle Go To Site

"Count all the votes", which most progressives now remember as the rallying cry, actually came very late in the process, and only after the Supreme Court of the United States told the Florida Supreme Court that no, it couldn't just let Al Gore add in some new votes from Democratic Counties his team had personally selected. -Megan McArdle Go To Site

“Earlier today, a rental truck carried a half a million ballots from Palm Beach to the Florida Supreme Court there in Tallahassee. CNN had live helicopter coverage from the truck making its way up the Florida highway, and for a few brief moments, America held the hope that O.J. Simpson had murdered Katherine Harris.” — Bill Maher Go To Site

Newspapers' recount shows Bush prevailed

Liberal, Election, Narrative, Oops

George W. Bush would have won a hand count of Florida's disputed ballots if the standard advocated by Al Gore had been used, the first full study of the ballots reveals. Bush would have won by 1,665 votes — more than triple his official 537-vote margin — if every dimple, hanging chad and mark on the ballots had been counted as votes, a USA TODAY/Miami Herald/Knight Ridder study shows. The study is the first comprehensive review of the 61,195 "undervote" ballots that were at the center of Florida's disputed presidential election.

Wasserman Schultz Says Al Gore Won Florida in 2000

Democrat, Liberal, Narrative, Oops, Lie

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) denied Friday that George W. Bush won Florida in the 2000 presidential election, saying Al Gore won it and the Supreme Court elected Bush to the presidency. MSNBC reporter Hallie Jackson did not push back on Schultz’s claim. In fact, she agreed. Bush won the state by an official tally of 537 votes after a prolonged recount period that eventually went to the Supreme Court.

Joe Biden: Supreme Court was wrong; Al Gore was elected president of the United States

Democrat, Liberal, Election, Incompetence, Funny, Brilliance, Narrative, Oops, Constitution

Vice President Joe Biden praised former Vice President Al Gore, who was present during a fundraiser for Massachusetts Senate Candidate Ed Markey, asserting that Gore had actually won the the 2000 presidential election. “This man was elected president of the United States of America,” Biden said according to the pool report. “No, no, no. He was elected president of the United States of America. But for the good of the nation, when the bad decision in my view was made, he did the right thing for the nation.”