The Bush coup

Gore won the election. So why are the pundits calling on him to concede?

by Dan Kennedy

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 10 a.m. - There was patriotic music on NPR this morning - the sort of thing they do in Third World countries to signal that there's been a coup.

Something similar is under way right now. A reminder, in case you've been exposed to too much conventional wisdom over the past 24 hours: Al Gore won the presidential election. Not by much. He received 48,707,413 votes, just 97,773 more than George W. Bush's 48,609,640. That's even closer than the next-closest election of this century, John Kennedy's 114,673-vote defeat of Richard Nixon in 1960.

But, impossibly close or not, Gore won. And Bush didn't.

Yet, as I write this, it appears more likely than not that Bush, rather than Gore, will be declared the president-elect. By mid-morning, Gore was still 941 votes behind in Florida. And, thanks to our ridiculous, archaic Electoral College system of voting, Bush will get all 25 of Florida's electoral votes, giving him a winning margin of 271 to 267. If that occurs, Bush will enter office as an illegitimate, fraudulent president. It must not be allowed to happen.

As if to prove the world has turned upside down, the pundits are calling on Gore, the winner, to follow the example of the sainted Nixon and concede rather than get into a drawn-out recount battle over Florida. What's left out is that if Nixon had sought and won a recount in Illinois, he - like Bush is seeking to do today - would have entered the White House after having lost the popular vote. Gore's critics would have him give up even though he's already won. Somehow, though, it's considered impolite to point this out. For instance, on CNN's Larry King Live Wednesday night, Hal Bruno dismissed fellow analyst Bill Schneider as though he were some sort of anarchist when Schneider had the temerity to suggest there might be popular outrage if Bush is declared the winner. Similarly, Newsweek/MSNBC's Jonathan Alter, one of the few to rail against the absurdity of this, has been whacked as though he were a Gore shill (including a swipe by my Phoenix colleague Seth Gitell).

"Liberals like Alter have a long history of trying to use their journalistic perches to push for liberal policies and create positive auras around liberal politicians," the conservative Media Research Center screeched in a hysterical (in several senses of the word) fax put out on Wednesday. "But it's outrageous for a liberal journalist to act as if the Constitution doesn't matter, and that 'political pressure' (read: media spin) can get their guy a job that the voters didn't lawfully give him."

To repeat: Al Gore won the election.

The truth is that the Electoral College should have been abolished many decades ago - say, after 1888, when a Republican, Benjamin Harrison, became president despite losing to Democrat Grover Cleveland by 90,596 votes (sound familiar)? In many respects, our political system has become far more democratic since the Constitution was ratified in 1789. African-Americans are no longer counted as three-fifths of a person. We've been electing senators since 1913. Women have the right to vote. Yet our profoundly undemocratic system of electing presidents has remained unchanged since 1804.

But even if we come to our collective senses and demand a constitutional amendment abandoning the Electoral College, there remains the matter of this election and what to do about it. It all comes down to Florida.

Despite evidence of numerous irregularities, it is unlikely that Gore is going to emerge as the winner. Take, for instance, the most promising avenue: those West Palm Beach residents who voted for Pat Buchanan when they meant to vote for Gore. The Gore campaign may make a case for throwing those ballots out, but there is no legal way they can be awarded to Gore. What's needed is a shocking act of statesmanship. And that would be most appropriate coming from George W. Bush - who did, after all, lose the damn election.

If it weren't for the messed-up ballots in West Palm Beach, there's little question that Gore would have won Florida by a few hundred votes. So, rather than accept a presidency won through constitutional insanity and botched ballots, Bush should seek a dignified way out of this. Governor Jeb Bush should take whatever steps necessary to award Florida's 25 electoral votes proportionally - say, 13 to George W. (if his slim lead holds) and 12 to Gore. That would give Gore 279 electoral votes - and the presidency - to 258 for Bush. If anyone should follow the Nixon example, it's Bush, not Gore. Gore won; Bush lost. It's really as simple as that. By hanging on by any means necessary, Bush would just about guarantee a disastrous presidency, and would enhance Gore's stature far more than Gore could ever accomplish on his own.

By contrast, if Bush does the right thing, he'll gain a reputation as a far bigger person than two years on the campaign trail were able to accomplish. That wouldn't be a bad head start on the 2004 campaign.

Dan Kennedy can be reached at dkennedy@phx.com