From: bunkmunkee@gmail.com   
      
   On Thursday, November 9, 2000 at 1:00:00 AM UTC-7, Ron Spiegelhalter wrote:   
   > I'm starting to think that it would be better if Bush wins this thing.   
   > Yeah, I voted for G...*cough*.  Excuse me, I said I voted for   
   > G...*choke*...voted for G...*gag*...I voted against Bush.  But with this   
   > thing dragging out the way it is, and the inevitable fallout from all of   
   > this, I'm thinking it would be better if Bush wins.   
   >   
   > Whichever of these guys wins will be getting in as a result of the closest   
   > election in ages.  No mandate there.  A huge number of Americans will be   
   > pissed.  Congress will have such a slim Republican majority that it's nearly   
   > irrelevant.  The Senate may even be 50/50.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, is   
   > going to be accomplished in the next four years no matter who's President.   
   >   
   > If Bush wins the electoral vote, he will be the first President in many of   
   > our memories to lose the popular vote.  That's not going to help his   
   > presidency.  He enters the Oval Office with an automatic sub-50% approval   
   > rating.  It's happened three times before: Hayes did it in 1876 and ended up   
   > a one-termer in 1880, Harrison did it in 1888 and ended up a one-termer in   
   > 1892, Kennedy did it in 1960 and we know what happened to him.  The debate   
   > over abolishing the electoral college will hang over Bush's presidency, many   
   > Americans will consider his administration illegitimate, and he will be   
   > ousted in 2004 without having done much damage.  Okay, he might get a   
   > Supreme Court justice in there, but it would have to be a pretty moderate   
   > nominee to get past such a balanced Congress.  And he'll probably end up   
   > accidentally pissing of a foreign ally or two (Anyone hear what he said to   
   > Queen Elizabeth?  Yeesh!).  But the fact is that Gore will fare no better if   
   > he gets in; in fact he'll probably be even weaker.  The only way Gore is   
   > winning this election is in the courts.  That's no way to establish   
   > presidential authority.  That stigma will hang over him even heavier than   
   > Bush's popular vote loss would.  Then he'll be out of there in 2004 and   
   > we'll probably end up with Bush in a landslide.   
   >   
   > Whoever loses this year is very likely to win in 2004 by a healthy margin.   
   > So we deal with the moron for the next four, then the system corrects   
   > itself.  I don't think there's any need to worry about an effective Bush   
   > presidency; George W. Bush makes Dan Quayle look like Ronald Reagan.  And   
   > he'll have a gridlocked Congress behind him.  So when Bush is declared the   
   > official winner in Florida, don't panic.  The next four years will be fine,   
   > we'll probably get a good batch of amusing SNL sketches out of it, and we'll   
   > take care of it in 2004.   
   >   
   > ron   
      
   Ha ha ha, what a muppetshow!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)