HBO Films is about to show Recount, a behind the scenes dramatization of the 2000 US presidential election, specifically the Florida state recount(s). The usual left-leaning suspects are in hand, meaning this will about as even-handed as a Michael Moore "documntary". But in general I like HBO Films. Since I don't subscribe to HBO, though, I'll be waiting for the DVD.
Part of my problem with the film is summed up in an MSNBC article that describes one side in the recount acting fairly while the other isn't.
The film portrays the efforts of both camps to tilt the scales, one seemingly fairly and one not, in order to give their candidate the greatest chance of winning.
Gee, wonder which is which?
The larger issue is that I'm fairly certain that this docu-drama will miss a few pertinent points. The first, of course, is that except for a college-concocted recount scheme that no one, at the time, thought of, let alone endorsed, Bush won all the recounts.
Second is the statistical fact of life that the margin of victory was never going to be greater than the margin of error.
Third, that efforts to "count every vote" apparently did not include the military absentee vote.
And fourth, and actually the historical fact of the matter, that the central issue was not the vote counts. The problem was the Florida Supreme Court inventing new ways to count votes and extending the deadlines for doing so. This was and is in clear violation of the seperation of powers. They had strayed into the legislative function and it was on that basis that the US Supreme Court shut 'em down.
Since that seperation of powers, the very basis for checks and balances in the US system of government, is of such alleged importance to lefties and Democrats, you'd think they'd applaud the ruling.
But that would required adhering to principles rather than succombing to BSD. Oops.
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