543,895
A little over eight years ago, I was a senior in high school and the news editor of my my high school’s weekly paper. When the Election of 2000 rolled around, it was the first presidential race of my life that mattered. Soon, I would be old enough to vote, and politics had ceased being some abstract thing that mattered to adults.
As Election Night 2000 unfolded, everyone around me realized we were witnessing a seminal moment in American history. George W. Bush and Al Gore couldn’t have been more different in terms of policies, and when the dust settled on Election Night, Gore had a command lead in the popular vote but couldn’t, as we know, wrap up the Electoral Vote.
The recount effort on behalf of the Democrats was a disaster. They lost the PR war; they lost the court case; they lost the election. And now, eight years later — eight long years filled with terrible foreign policy, recession-inducing economic policy, and backwards-looking domestic policy — it’s all over. In less than 12 hours, Barack Obama will become the next President of the United States, and we can put the day-to-day dealings of the Bush Administration firmly in the past.
Before we do that, though, think about the number 543,895. It’s not a lot of people really, but it represents the difference between Al Gore’s vote total and George W. Bush’s vote total in 2000. That year, over 500,000 more people voted for the man who lost the presidential election because of a poorly designed ballot in the not-so-great state of Florida.
While Gore wasn’t the first loser to win the popular vote — Samuel Tilden holds that honor — seemingly less has been made of that significant difference than of any other number in American history. The people who voted for Gore didn’t rise up. In fact, after Bush v. Gore, we all pretty much rolled over, accepted our fate and nominated a guy who couldn’t win in 2004.
So as President Obama takes the oath of office and American thinks back on the last eight years, just realize that we have been governed by a president who lost his first election for the White House by half a million votes.
Politics | Benjamin Kabak, January 20, 2009 1:48 am
