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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Election purgatory, an Editorial



How Close Was It?

GEORGE BUSH BEAT AL GORE BY MORE VOTES IN ORANGE COUNTY THAN GORE beat Bush in the entire nation. By almost twice as many votes, in fact.


Heaven

IF BUSH PREVAILS THE GOP WILL BE THE LUCKIEST POLITICAL PARTY ON THE face of the earth, having won control of all of the levers of national elective government,the presidency and both houses of Congress,by incredibly thin margins in every case. But I think it could be very lucky for the nation, as well. It would be lucky for the nation if the Republicans seize the moment (and in historical terms it could well be just a moment) to find common ground with well-intentioned Democrats and seek answers to major concerns of the electorate. In this spirit, George Bush could use his no-mandate presidency to his advantage, as a lever to achieve his proclaimed bipartisan approach to governing. The first item on his agenda ought to be Social Security reform. He could revive the bipartisan commission whose recommendations Clinton chose to reject because, as others have pointed out, Clinton-Gore preferred having an issue to run on than a solution to a problem. Paybacks by Bush to social conservatives? Maybe his signing of a partial-birth abortion bill, which has had majority support in Congress and in public opinion polls. But not during his first weeks in office. And not much beyond that. Bush and GOP lawmakers would be wise to take their newfound power as a short-term loan from the American people to do their business, not the party’s business. If they follow that tack, the benefit for the country could be substantial. And the contrast to the last eight years of the contentions Clinton administration (whose high jinks continue even now with Al Gore’s legal maneuvering in Florida) would be so evident as to possibly win the GOP an even longer term of governance.


or Hell

AL GORE’S GAME PLAN IS TRANSPARENTLY CLEAR: Discredit the Florida election results, and trumpet his popular-vote victory to build public sympathy for the endeavor. The hope is that the American people will conclude that, well, maybe what he’s doing is unconstitutional, but it’s a minor offense compared to the massive injustice of denying him the presidency because of the Electoral College and a “tainted” election in Florida. It’s the same strategy Clinton used to triumph over impeachment. Discredit your accusers and build up sympathy for yourself, so that constitutional principles are subordinated to public opinion. It worked in Clinton’s case because his tribunal was Congress. Gore has a tougher road because his arena will be the courts, probably ultimately the Supreme Court. And the legal arguments Gore is making to overturn the election appear to have no precedent. Not that Gore won’t prevail, nothing’s certain. But if he does, God help us. Because if all it takes to overturn an election is to hire sharp lawyers and exploit election irregularities, our system of government is going to resemble a banana republic’s.


Them’s the Breaks

FROM WHAT I’VE SEEN SO FAR, I’M PERSUADED THAT SOME PEOPLE (A VERY, very small percentage of the total) punched the wrong hole on the ballot in Palm Beach, Fla. I feel bad for them, although I don’t see any reason to let them vote over. But I don’t have much sympathy for Al Gore or the Democrats, even if it cost them precious votes. When you scour skid rows and mental hospitals and prisons for votes, and scare feeble-minded people into thinking that George Bush would take away their rights or benefits, you have to expect that a certain number of them are going to screw up their ballots.


D & #233;j & #341; Vu

WHEN THIS CHICAGO BOY SAW BILL DALEY STRIDE INTO THE RAIN OF NASH-ville and tell the crowd that Gore wasn’t conceding the election, a surge of hometown pride overtook me. “Daley’s stealing another one!” I said. Only now, instead of political bosses and ward heelers, the dirty work’s being done by lawyers and spin doctors.


A Footnote

LIBERTARIAN HARRY BROWNE BEAT PAT BUCHANAN IN CALIFORNIA, 40,263 TO 39,900. Browne beat Buchanan in OC, 4,223 to 3,683. Nationally, Buchanan won, but not by much, 435,941 to 373,109 (both totals rounding down to 0% of the vote).


The Local Elections

OH, YOU MEAN THERE WERE LOCAL ELECTIONS? Actually yes. Measure H, the initiative to spend all of the county’s tobacco settlement revenue on healthcare and public safety, won, an unfortunate triumph for ballot-box budgeting. Larry Agran took over again as mayor of Irvine, with a 3-2 majority on the council; let the games begin. Santa Ana Miguel Pulido was re-elected as mayor, maintaining his 6-1 council edge in OC’s most populous city. The voters in Brea and San Clemente wisely beat back “no-growth” initiatives whose ramifications would have been worse for the residents of those two cities than continuing along the current line of planned growth.

In Newport Beach, though, the “no-growth” Greenlight Initiative won handily. It will be interesting to watch the fallout. Already, there are rumblings from Conexant about possibly leaving the city (see Peter Brennan’s story, page 1). One rumor has Conexant moving right across the street, into Irvine. The irony in that scenario is that the traffic and other impacts on Newport Beach would be the same, but Newport Beach would get none of the mediating developer fees,they’d all go to Irvine. Funny how these things work.

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