“You know,” DNC chair Terry
McAuliffe told Democrats assembled in St. Paul Friday, “there are some who feel the Democrats should
just throw in the towel right now. I
even read the following just the other day by political commentator Tom Wicker:
‘The real question is whether any
Democrat can match George Bush’s claim to be a proven Presidential figure,
validated by war and victory. It won’t
be easy . . .’ I also read: ‘No political strategist in the country can
see any way George Bush is not going to win and win big.’ That came from Ed Rollins, a Republican political
strategist. Sounds pretty dire,
huh? Well, buck up – these were written
in 1991.”
I know this will annoy those
who believe the right wing of the Republican Party should control all three branches of government (look how well it’s
doing so far), but I think a Democrat is going to win in 2004.
Look at it this way: Do the 51 million folks who voted for Gore –
537,000 more than voted for Bush – wake up each morning thinking, “Gee, this is
really better than I expected! We’ve got
peace and prosperity, we’re funding the things that need to be funded, and,
well – the guy really is a uniter, not a divider.”
I don’t think so.
Do the 3 million folks who
voted for Nader – 97,000 of them in Florida – wake up each morning thinking they would do the
same thing if they had it to do over again?
I don’t think so.
Will the nearly 50,000
African Americans in Florida who were systematically – and wrongly – removed from
the voter roles in 2000 vote for Bush in 2004?
I don’t think so.
And I don’t think the “Jews
for Buchanan” – those nice little old ladies in Palm Beach – will either.
And then look at the other
side of it. Do the 50 million folks who
voted for Bush wake up every morning feeling glad they did? Yes, I think most do. But I think some small but crucial proportion
feel betrayed. This is not the balanced
budget they expected. This is not the
humble foreign policy they expected. This
is not the bipartisan spirit they expected.
And I like to think that some
portion of the media will finally get a little tough. Not Rush Limbaugh or Fox or any of them,
obviously (“We Distort, You Decide”). But the more traditional media.
I can’t say for sure that every
word Greg
Palast has written these past few years is
accurate, fair, and balanced. (And I can’t
say that it’s not.) But I am dumbstruck and
disheartened that the American press has not investigated and found out for
sure.
To get a flavor of what I’m talking
about, click here. It’s mainly about former Congresswoman
Cynthia McKinney, but here’s one piece of it:
Months before the 2000 presidential
elections, the offices of Florida Governor Jeb Bush
and Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered the removal of 90,000 citizens
from the voter rolls because they were convicted felons . . . and felons can’t
vote in Florida.
There was one problem: 97 percent of those on the list were, in fact, innocent.
They weren’t felons, but they were
guilty . . . of not being white. Over half the list contained names of
non-whites. I’m not guessing: I have the list from out of the computers of
Katherine Harris’ office – and the “scrubbed” voter’s race is listed with each
name.
And that’s how our President was
elected: by illegally removing tens of thousands of legal African American
voters before the race.
But you knew that . . . at least you did
if you read the British papers – I reported this discovery for the Guardian of London. And I reported again on
the nightly news. You saw that . . . if you live in Europe
or Canada
or South America.
In the USA,
the story ran on page zero. Well, let me correct that a bit. The Washington
Post did run the story on the fake felon list that selected our President –
even with a comment under my byline. I wrote the story within weeks of the
election, while Al Gore was still in the race. The Post courageously ran it . .
. seven months after the election.
Isn’t this as important as,
say, a $225 Presidential haircut that may or may not have delayed airport
traffic for 15 minutes?
For those who may be growing
worried about right wing control of all three branches of government,
click here.
“If this is class warfare, then my class is winning.”
– Warren Buffett