Many otherwise intelligent Democrats are still, to this day, concerned about Ralph Nader costing them another election. This despite proof that Nader did not cost Gore the election in 2000. It’s been my contention all along that Gore cost Gore the election, via his very own brand of ineptitude, including his absurd distancing from Clinton. But don’t listen to me. Al From, founder and CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, wrote in Blueprint Magazine (1-24-01) that according to their own exit polls, Bush would have beat Gore by one percentage point if Nader hadn’t run in 2000. In other words, Nader draws voters from both parties, independents, and from people who would otherwise not vote.
Aside from Gore’s glaring weakness as a candidate, there is substantial evidence that Republicans, most notably Jeb Bush, cost Gore the White House.
“In the months leading up to the November 2000 presidential election, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, in coordination with Governor Jeb Bush, ordered local election supervisors to purge 57,700 voters from the registries, supposedly ex-cons not allowed to vote in Florida. At least 90.2 percent of those on this “scrub” list, targeted to lose their civil rights, are innocent. Notably, more than half–about 54 percent–are black or Hispanic. You can argue all night about the number ultimately purged, but there’s no argument that this electoral racial pogrom ordered by Jeb Bush’s operatives gave the White House to his older brother.” -from Gregory Palast’s article* in The Nation
Then there’s the fact that the broadcast media in this country is firmly in the hands of the right, or else strong-armed by the right, as is the case with CBS. As previously reported here, and elsewhere, John Ellis, a venture capitalist, freelance journalist, blogger and first cousin of both Jeb and George Bush, was the man responsible for calling the election for Bush on Fox News after a conference call with his two power-hungry cousins. Every other network quickly fell in line with this erroneous pronouncement. From there it was for the courts to settle, and settle it they did.
*Palast also reveals that nationwide, 1.9 million votes were never counted in 2000, for reasons of spoilage.