Friday, 10 November 2000

WEEKEND PREVIEW

I know that a lot of you hate me for continuing to write about the only story that matters this week. But, as with other ongoing riffs in this column, I have to write what I have to write. (Box Office Extra will appear here after noon, PST) There will be movie coverage in this column today, but first... the Florida horror.

It's kind of a no-win situation. I don't dispute that there was a real problem in Palm Beach County. But the problem of a re-vote is every bit as significant, if not more so. It's 10:50 am here in L.A., and the Gore team just held a press conference to explain how many Floridians were disenfranchised by the "butterfly" ballot. Gore Campaign Chairman William Daley said, "We're not talking about the integrity of this recount or the accuracy of this number that may be put out (including the absentee ballots), but that surely does not reflect the will of the people of Florida who went to the polls on Tuesday." He said, "Any thought that the number that someone could come up with today is the final number is unrealistic." And he said, "It's not about what number is acceptable, it's that the process is completed."

But then someone asked Daley the key question: "Let's say that Gore overtakes Bush by the end of today.... Will you declare yourself a winner, or will you continue to wait until your actions are pursued in Palm Beach?" Daley’s response? "Let's wait and see what happens with the votes today and with absentee ballots."

Don't fool yourself into thinking this is anything but political. In this particular issue, morality is only important to the Gore campaign if the Gore campaign can win. I have no problem with a bunch of politicos fighting and scraping for a win through any means necessary. I have a major problem with the lie that this is about "the will of the people." I have a major problem with a campaign that just spent days explaining that all that mattered was the Electoral College now using the overall popular vote to try to manipulate the "will of the people." I also have a real problem with a campaign, which is already championing a re-vote in Palm Beach County, screaming that the Bush camp, which has kept quiet, is smugly disinterested in the "will of the people."

And I have a huge problem with the presidency of this country being decided by a re-vote that no reasonable person can expect to re-create precisely the actions and intentions of Election Day. The vast majority of re-votes are run-offs. No one gets a majority, and the top two vote-getters run again. And, no doubt, this is what would happen in Palm Beach County. And who wins this re-vote? Well, Al Gore, obviously. With 432,695 votes in, Gore won 62 percent to 36 percent. With 10,045 votes going to neither Gore nor Bush, all Gore needs to do is convert about 1,000 of the voters to win the nation. Think about that. Nader had 5,564 votes, and everyone assumes that Nader voters are would-be Gore voters. A second chance at turning just 20 percent -- maybe less -- of the Nader voters in one county in one state into Gore voters, under these circumstances (the whole world is watching), could win Al Gore the presidency. Does that even seem challenging for the Democratic machine? Does that make your vote very valuable?

And isn't it funny how everyone is confused now?! Now everyone may have screwed up! How many people were in Shea when the Yankees won the World Series? How many people do you think say they were there? And how many people will say they were there a few years from now, when they’re talking to friends who weren't actually with them in the bar that night? This is bandwagon central. This is politics. This is not about morality anymore.

Jesse Jackson got up and said the right thing... at the beginning. He talked about people not being able to get in to vote during the hours set by the polling places. He talked about polling places that ran out of ballots. He talked about how many problems there were with the overall vote in America, as there are in every election. And then he started talking about Palm Beach. And which part of his commentary do you think was replayed on the air? While I honor his integrity in pointing out that Palm Beach wasn't the only place that had problems, it's clear that the intent of the speech was to push forward the Palm Beach agenda.

Here's my proposal: Let Palm Beach re-vote. And let Lee and Duval Counties re-vote. They're pro-Bush counties. Duval County had 264,543 voters, and Lee had 184,246 voters, for 448,789 total... a few more than the 432,695 voters in Palm Beach County. I could probably come up with a better set of counties for this analogy, but you get the point. In Lee and Duval Counties, Gore actually did better against Bush than Bush did against Gore in Palm Beach (258,239 Bush to 181,424 Gore in Duval/Lee, compared with 269,696 Gore to 152,954 Bush in Palm Beach). But I don't really care that much who wins. I just want the voice of the people to be heard. I don't think this is really the way to do that, either. But if there is going to be a re-vote, let there be a re-vote as balanced as the election.

Assuming that a re-vote is fair, and that the people of Florida really wanted to vote for Gore, they should have no fears about a three-county run-off, should they? They even hold a slight advantage going in. Will people start demanding REAL fairness? Would we be hearing about any of this if the county that had a ballot problem was a pro-Bush county? Why aren't Gore operatives mentioning that while 19,000 ballots were thrown out in Palm Beach County for double punches this year, more than 15,000 were thrown out in Palm Beach in the 1996 election... with no "butterfly" ballot?

If you are a quote whore, call yourself a quote whore, and I'm okay with you. If you are staring at that girl's breasts every time she walks into the room, don’t tell me that all you care about is her mind. And if your real agenda is to get Al Gore elected, admit it. Don't hide behind a false ideal and claim to be taking the high ground. That’s far worse, to me, than just being biased. It bastardizes the idea of morality so much that there is, in the end, none at all. And that would be a shame.

THIS JUST IN: I swear, there will be movies on Page Two, but CNN just reported that the latest idea is to ask a judge to change the vote in Palm Beach County based on a statistical analysis of how those who voted for Buchanan might have actually intended to vote. The horror... the horror...

P.S. Sorry, one more thing... the silence on the side of the Republicans... that's playing politics also. It's clear to me that they’re hoping to win the people’s sympathy -- remember, they got 50 percent of the vote -- by not going on the attack against the Democrats. They are likely hoping that the Dems will go too far and lose public-opinion support, which currently seems to be sympathetic to the Palm Beach voters. (Of course, I live in California.) If anything changes -- for example, if Bush loses the lead -- expect the hue and cry to start on the other side and expect it to be every bit as loud and biased and manipulative. And I will, I’m sorry to tell you, feel compelled to wail against that as well. And for those of you who want to support a re-vote…

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Here's a link to an organization called Working for Change that believes in the re-vote and has facilitated a way for you tell the governors of Florida just that. Just click here to check it out.

PAGE TWO: Movies, Movies, Movies!!!!