The Accidental President
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The Accidental President
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Why GW is the "Accidental President"
"...the review of 171,908 ballots also reveals that voting mistakes by thousands of Democratic voters — errors that legally disqualified their ballots — probably cost former vice president Al Gore 15,000 to 25,000 votes. That's enough to have decisively won Florida and the White House. Gore's best chance to win was lost before the ballots were counted, the study shows. Voters' confusion with ballot instruction and design and voting machines appears to have changed the course of U.S. history." - "Florida voter errors cost Gore the election" USA TODAY
No matter how you slice it, the fact remains that the man who currently occupies the White House resides there due to an accident. Voters in Palm Beach County, Florida, because of a simple printing error, had problems understanding the ballot. That lead them to make mistakes and punch the hole for a candidate they did not intend to support.
Yes, I know all the jokes about how elderly people in Florida can manage 5 bingo cards, smoke a cigarette, drink beer and not mess up.
Still, no matter how you feel about the election, whether you support Al Gore or George W. Bush, you have to admit, Bush is only in the White House accidently.
Thus, he is, and always will be, the Accidental President. I do believe that this is the first time in the history of the United States of America that a man is in the White House accidently.
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Al Gore
I saw Al Gore speak in 1992 and have been a supporter of his ever since. I have met several politicians in my life and most are very unimpressive.
What surprised me about Gore, was the respect that the Secret Service has for him. It's a small matter really, but small things often speak very loudly about a person's character.
At most political events I have attended, the candidate will shake hands with a pre-selected few. When I saw Gore speak, I knew I was not to be amoung the chosen, so I opted to leave when he finished his speech and try to beat the traffic. I did not know the Secret Service would close the gates until (at the time) Sen. Gore left the area.
As the crowd gathered at the closed gates, with the lone Secret Service agent at the front, someone said, "It's going to take a long time for Gore to shake hands with all those people." I replied that it would not, because only a few people would actually get to shake his hand.
Now, as I said, I have been to a number of political events, both with Republicans and Democrats. And I have seen several Secret Service agents and observed them at their jobs. They just simply do not make comments. But this particular agent surprised me by speaking up and making a comment.
The agent said, "Sen. Gore will remain until everyone who wishes to shake his hand has done so. He does not want anyone to go away dissappointed."
I replied, thinking back to my own days of working in the security field, "Wow, that must drive you guys nuts."
The Secret Service agent simply said, "Sen. Gore understands the risks. It is our job to protect him."
I said, "These guys are really different." My comment was meant to include both Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
The Secret Service man turned in my direction, and he said, very clearly and very directly, "Yes, ma'am, he is." And the emphasis was VERY clearly on the "he".
The Secret Service man also informed us that Al Gore wore a bullet proof vest at their insistence.
In 2000, I volunteered to work at my state's Democratic convention. Again, I went to see Al Gore speak. This time I proudly stayed to shake his hand because I knew I meant something to him.
To me, any man that is willing to risk his life to make sure that no one is dissappointed is a hero.
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Character and the Man in the White House
Throughout the election last year, and continuing even now, many people claim that the issue for the presidency is "character". Those who voted for Bush often claim that they "just wanted Bill Clinton out of there". They found little or no fault with Al Gore's character, but, somehow he was responsible for the actions of Clinton. According to exit polls of voters I heard mentioned throughout election night, clearly one-third of the people voting for Bush did so because they wanted to "vote against Bill Clinton". I guess no one told them that Clinton was not running.
Anyway, as I said a minute ago, sometimes small things speak very loudly about a person. And so, I will tell you how I came to lose all faith in Bush.
Maybe it is silly of me, but I can't help it. A week or so before the election, Bush appeared on Jay Leno. Jay, always looking for a laugh, asked Bush to tell a story from his childhood. One where, perhaps, he had misbehaved a little bit and got into some hot water with his parents.
Now, all of us have at least one humourous, and harmless tale to tell on ourselves from our childhood. Something we did that, while harmless now, might have caused a little grief when we were five, six, or even ten. Certainly nothing from those days could ever come back to haunt any of us or ruin us politically.
Yet, instead of telling a tale about himself, Bush chose to tell an embarrassing story about his brother, Marvin. Apparently, when young, Marvin once urinated into the family steam iron.
Now, was the story funny. Of course it was. But, afterwards it caused me to wonder about a man who, instead of telling a silly story about himself, would choose to embarrass his own brother on national television.
Yes, I know, it is a small thing. And prior to seeing it, I was thinking "no matter who wins this, we are going to be OK, they are both good men". Afterwards, I couldn't help but fear a man who has so little character he would treat his own brother as he did.
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