Comments on: "The rules of this game were set by the people, underwritten by the people, financed or not."

"The rules of this game were set by the people, underwritten by the people, financed or not."

holgate — Sun, 19 Nov 2000 01:01:10 -0800

"The rules of this game were set by the people, underwritten by the people, financed or not." Yet another opportunity for the British Observer to put the US newspapers to shame, with an closely-argued, even-handed reflection on the fun in Florida. "The system, full of inefficiencies and coagulations, may stink, but it is also a system which belongs to the voters who now complain so shrilly about it."

By: lagado

lagado — Sun, 19 Nov 2000 18:35:19 -0800

Another great article, holgate. I think it's a lost cause though. Freedom, it seems, is more important that Fairness.

By: baylink

baylink — Mon, 20 Nov 2000 07:12:30 -0800

My favorite quote, which makes me feel somewhat vindicated as an anti-Bush person, was: This Observer observer, who is neither a Democrat nor a Republican, can't help feeling that fairness and responsibility go together here. The Gore camp has had the best of the political argument. Something was wrong in Palm Beach County. It would have been better to sort it out by a hand recount or a re-vote, if necessary state-wide. This 'felt fair' solution is what Florida voters (and probably their Supreme Court) want. The Bush camp, constantly moaning about hand counts of the kind George W has signed into Texas law and closing its ears to the cries of public opinion, has managed to look shifty and ruthless and arrogant. None of that will help the Republicans if they eventually come to to govern a divided nation and (more testingly) a bitterly divided Congress; but real fairness, alas, is a rather more elusive concept. Can someone tell me why no one is agitating for a revote in (at least) Palm Beach County? The election there was broken, for Christ's good sake. That's obvious. I'm getting shrill. :-)