DC Trawler

No, Al Gore Did Not Immediately Concede The 2000 Election

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Jim Treacher Blogger
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Why do you think the phrase “hanging chads” entered the American lexicon?

Alex Pappas reports:

Donald Trump’s top surrogates are pushing back at the outrage over the Republican nominee’s refusal to pledge to automatically accept the results of the election by saying it took Al Gore months before conceding the 2000 election to George W. Bush…

“Peaceful transfer of power is important, but the accuracy of the election — as Al Gore pointed out — is even more important,” said former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s most ardent and loyal surrogates.

Is this election going to be as close as the one in 2000? I really doubt it.* But let’s not pretend Al Gore just rolled over and said, “Okay, whatever.”

That’s the narrative being weaved by our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters in the media. For example, here’s a really smart feller from Politico:

One problem, though. Here’s the headline to the linked NYT story:

bushismycommander

Note the date. Al Gore said that nearly a year after the election, long after all the recount drama, and in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. So, all it took for Gore to accept the result of the 2000 election was a Supreme Court decision and the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil to date.

And a lot of people still don’t accept the result of that election. This happened just last week:

“You won! You won! You won!” Well, no, he didn’t. And he put the whole country through hell before he even began to accept that he didn’t.

Trump has said a lot of stupid stuff, and will continue to say a lot of stupid stuff. When If he loses on election night, he should concede. But you can find plenty of reasons to attack him without pretending Al Gore was something he wasn’t. Or that the rest of the Democrats are something they’re not.

*Clearly it’ll be a Trump landslide! That’s why he’s already squalling about the election being rigged.

P.S. John McCormack, Weekly Standard: “Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said there was no chance that a 7-point loss could be attributed to voter fraud.”

P.P.S.

Jim Treacher