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removing politics from other threads, I offer this as background for all disinterested but interested observers of the State of the Onion:  Is that an election in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?The U.S. Presidential election has made headlines around the world. Believe it or not - this is not the first time in U.S. history that things have been this close -- or this crazy... On election night in 1876, Rutherford Hayes went to bed believing he had lost the presidential election. The next day, however, his Republican campaign manager boldly proclaimed him the winner, opening the curtain on the most fiercely disputed election in American history. It was discovered that three Republican states in the South (Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana) had sent in double returns. The Democrats screamed foul, until it was revealed they, too, had committed election return fraud. Congress debated the election results for weeks. The year ended with no U.S. president-elect. In January 1877, Congress appointed an electoral commission to laboriously re-count the entire vote and settle the dispute. On March 2, the commission announced that Hayes had 185 electoral votes and Samuel Tilden 184. If only one of the 20 disputed electoral votes had gone to him, Tilden would have been elected. His popular vote was 4,284,020; Hayes's trailed at 4,036,572. With thanks to Lee Daniel Quinn at <words@iop.com>, from Useless-Infomaster http://uselessdigest@uselessknowledge.com
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While enjoying my daily giggle at UserFriendly.org, I saw a banner ad that caused an even bigger smile. It was for CNN "Election2000 Too close to call Stay with CNN for complete coverage." It brought back memories of how often the phrase "too close to call" was used in media coverage of the election in progress. Of course, almost immediately after using the phrase, the media organisations would proceed to "call it." While it doesn't rank with asking some train/plane/boat wreck survivor "how do you feel to have survived while watching your entire family brutally dismembered?", it was an amusing example of how to use language without being bogged down by petty details such as meaning.
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What is most upsetting to me, is a Florida official who calmly mentioned (reported in Friday, 11/10, NY Times, but buried on page 33 or so) that in the last election (2 years ago) 15,000 votes( in one county!) where thrown out because they were double punched. over 19,000 in state!
So they knew they had a problem two years ago, and think nothing of dis enfranchizing almost 20,000 voters! If this were happening in any other country, we would be up in arms and taking away "favored nation status" for election fraud!
the officials in Florida should be brought up on charges--not for this election, but for what happened in 1998!
I voted for Gore, and even if he end up with popular vote, I expect he will step aside for Bush if Bush wins Florida electorate. I didn't want Bush, but I am all for an orderly transfer of power...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Actually, there was a squeaker even later. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson was running against Charles Evans Hughes and a couple of minor party candidates (Socialist and Prohibition). The outcome of the election rested on California, and not only on California but eventually on the returns from one county somewhere in Northern California. A couple of days after the election, the returns came in by mail or some equally slow medium and Wilson carried California by only 4000 votes. He had at one point been ready to concede to Hughes.
BTW, a concession is absolutely meaningless. Just as meaningless as having Bush and Gore agree that they will abide by this or that. What matters is the votes, not what the candidates agree on.
TEd
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well, of course you're right, Ted -- to borrow poker parlance, the votes read. but here we have an unseemly squabble over who gets to read (read interpret) the votes.
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who gets to read..And of course for both the Mother of Parliaments and her illegitimate daughter, we then have the unseemly business of translating into what a vote is actually worth. In Victorian England they called this process a 'rotten borough' system - now we call it democracy 
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>now we call it democracy
what this U.S. election (soon to be referred to as The Appointment) is all about is affirming that what we have is not a democracy, but a republic.
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Allo Ted,
Being from Canada I have no opinion whatsoever as to who is a better candidate but I deduce by your comment that you back Mr. Gore since he is the one who called Mr. Bush to concede and you are saying that a concession is meaningless.
But WHY is a concession meaningless? Maybe I misunderstand the term, or the concept. Why would Gore have bothered to concede if it meant nothing and was a worthless statement?
The way it looks now, to people removed from the situation, is that Gore is wishy-washy and does not stick to his word.
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a concession is just a pro forma statement made by the loser when it becomes obvious that it's all over but the fat lady's song and he wants everyone to put the champagne back on ice and turn out the lights. evidently in mid-song it was determined that the fat lady had succumbed to acalculia. as I said earlier, the votes read -- you can't just up and quit. (well, you can; but you don't while your supporters are waiting to drink that champagne!)
actually, it wouldn't have made any difference if he'd gone ahead and made the concession speech and it later turned out that he had won -- except that it would have been rather embarassing (but what could be more embarassing that what's going on now??).
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