Actually wait a min… If Gore got Nader’s votes, then no 8 years of Bush… It is my fault!! WHat have I done?!?

And so he did. Not even the hilariously-ironic direct-beneficiary of the Palm Beach County butterfly ballot befuddlement could summon the chutzpah to contend otherwise: “Those were not My votes,” quoth Patrick J. Buchanan, Himself. ;>

Ah, me. If only, if only. If only the Courts could somehow ~ without Wrecking election-law Jurisprudence forever ~ count the votes the way the Judges (and everybody else) know damn well the Voters meant to cast them, even when the punchcards as Punched clearly & chadlessly Contradict such intent.

Better yet: IF ONLY a few thousand of those counter-intentional but cleanly-punching Palm Beachies for Pat could have emulated the vast majority of their Democratic compatriots who successfully Beat the Butterfly and actually cast a Gore/Lieberman ballot in accordance with their Intent.

If only. / If so, by now Carbon Emissions would be Corralled, Social Security would be safe in the Lockbox, and we’d finally have an Internet. :} Also, not to leave out the alternate-timeline VP, I could Buy In to Medicare [it was a Good Idea at the Time :] and Iran would be wiped off the Map a peaceful & pleasant land. ;>

Ah, me. :)

While I was most certainly a news and politics junkie at the time, I was not in journalism yet, but I have a feeling the election was one of the things that convinced me to switch majors (for richer or, um, poorer).

I even got a little time on CNN when I officially switched to journalism and poli sci, because I sent an e-mail to “The Spin Room” and they read it on TV.

What’s memorable about them was how their emotions didn’t jibe with the CNN viewers: they seemed slightly embarassed to be at the center of this mess (viewers were thrilled to be “living history”), they were completely exhausted (viewers were still stoked, even in the middle of the night in the east), and most memorably, they were primarily focused on what the newly-introduced “hanging chad” meant for them locally.

Was wondering: will this be the last moment of historic significance to be played out so locally? If the cablenewsies had gotten on the scene, the questions for the local election officials would have been stuff like “Do you agree with Candidate Bush’s campaign promise of a more non-interventionist foreign policy? Do you think a President Gore would be kind enough to invent another internet?”

Instead you got questions like “Are you going to have to hire away Joe the Plumber for a week to help you count these dangling thingies? I hear his business is really backed up this time of year, and there are a bunch of folks in my neighborhood who really need him this week”.

A surreal reminder that the big picture is really just the sum of a bunch of little pictures. Given the increasing reach of the cable newsies, we may never have such a reminder again.

I guess I can understand how it might be a curse, especially if one comes from a culture that values harmony above all else. However, as a life-long ink-stained wretch (and you’re still one of us, Brendan, no matter how much you run), it’s right up there on the positive end with ‘May your first child be a masculine child.’