Word: making
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...compassionate Republicans and conservative Democrats, of a G.O.P. Governor who broods like Hamlet over every issue and a Democratic attorney general, Bob Butterworth, Gore's Florida campaign chairman, who once made a joke about the problem of convicts' catching fire in Florida's electric chair. That mix ought to make Florida a more cooperative place during radioactive disputes like the recount. But in reality, says University of Florida political analyst Richard Scher, it has made the state a dysfunctional place in crises--a warning to the rest of the nation, he adds, about the pitfalls of centrism. "When the parties...
...moment, at least, civics is cool. This election has brought home how much we treasure the right to cast a ballot we can decipher and a machine that will count it. People racing to make airport connections stop for a gulp of CNN on the latest court ruling letting the hand count proceed. Look, Gore just got 53 votes in Broward! (Note to TV execs: Please reinstate the running hand-count tally.) Hey, no certification this Saturday! Bush will have to cancel the champagne and the Four Seasons ballroom. Celebrating Saturday night would be premature exuberance...
Gore's stand-in is Warren Christopher, the man who put the elder in statesman. He's so dull, he ordered Irish coffee during a layover at Shannon Airport with the instruction, "Hold the whiskey, and make it decaf." His very presence undercuts former Secretary of State James Baker's dire warnings that if we persist in this crazy "unconstitutional" recount, markets will collapse, world leaders will wobble and general mischief will abound. In Baker's view, the bipartisan counters are secret croupiers itching to stack the deck. There are more surveillance cameras than in a Las Vegas casino...
Just look at the numbers, especially in the all-important swing states. In Florida, the most crucial of them all, black votes constituted 15% of the turnout, up from 10% in 1996, even though they make up only 13% of the state's voting-age population. In Missouri, black turnout rose from 5% of the total turnout in the last election to 12%--not enough to keep the state out of Bush's column but assuring the election of the late Democratic Senate candidate Mel Carnahan (his widow will serve his term). Blacks in Tennessee, says political scientist David Bositis...
VOTING CHOICE Why should people be required to vote in the precinct where they happen to reside? This consigns all too many voters to third-rate jurisdictions where the result is a foregone conclusion. It also removes any incentive for jurisdictions to make their votes more important or exciting. Under a system of voting choice, each voter would be able to redeem the right to vote anywhere he or she wanted. Some might choose Palm Beach County, where the fun never stops and you can never be sure exactly whom you voted for. Others might choose Cook County...