I had been switching stations all night from Fox to ABC then on to NBC and CBS with the exception of CNN since I don’t have cable in my room.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but I was getting aggravated waiting for the final results to come in since I wanted to go to sleep.
Then around 1:15 a.m. Dallas time, I switched to CBS for a second. Dan Rather announced the Florida results which showed Bush had won and then CBS, NBC and Fox (ABC was the last to report), went live from Austin saying what, according to Rather, CNN had already said minutes before that Bush was now the 43rd president of the United States.
Somewhere between the hours of 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. that cold, Wednesday morning, however, I had a nightmare. The dream was we still didn’t have a new president and that another recount had been called. It would be another hour or so from the time I went to sleep that Governor Bush’s Democratic Presidential Candidate and current President Bill Clinton’s Vice President Al Gore would concede; the first time that is.
My disappointment and horrors were verified when I turned the TV Wednesday morning to find every news anchor on every station saying they still don’t know who the next president of the United States would be.
I was excited about this election, and I don’t get excited about much (those who know me personally will verify this). I hate most all sports and don't have a favorite team, though I do bowl and play racquetball.
I knew, watching the election results, how people felt whenever there is a super bowl, World Series or Stanley Cup and their favorite team is playing.
What made me feel especially good was, unlike some people I know, I went out and voted.
I voted a week early on Friday Nov. 3. I got in line around 10:50 a.m. at the only school in Mesquite that held early voting and was done by around 12:15 p.m.
The aggravation of waiting for about an hour and a half in the voting line, though, didn’t phase me at all. The time went by fast. Maybe it was the knowledge I felt I was doing something constructive with my time for once.
I’ve heard all the incredibly dumb excuses why people don't vote. They go right under those reasons why people don’t work out. They don’t have the time. They have too much to do. They work all the time. The fact is, aside from being apathetic; they are just too damn lazy.
Of course, when it comes to the presidential election, they say their vote doesn’t count. They say it’s the Electoral College that determines the final results.
Some simply don’t care. As long as the nation’s current events don’t interfere with their personal lives, people could care less about who is running for president.
I cared about who would be running the country the next four years. It’s safe to say, so did everyone else standing in that small lobby waiting to vote (some had to stand outside in the rain but not for long). We all came together to do one thing; vote for who we thought was the best candidate.
A guy behind me had a hat on with the name "Gore" on it. No one said a word until we came closer to the front line and one of the ladies running the voting booths kindly asked him to take it off because he was advertising. The guy didn’t protest. He understood and put his hat in his pocket.
It’s not like the joke we’re seeing in Florida now where outraged minorities and confused residents talk about how both they and the candidate they voted for got screwed.
It’s been said the dumbest question in the world is the one people don’t ask. If the ballots people filled out in Palm Beach County Tuesday night were confusing, why in the name of Hell did he/she fill them out? Why in the name of Hell didn’t he/she ask someone?
The ballot, which was published in one of Florida’s local papers, was similar to the ballots residents in Chicago’s Cook County filled out Tuesday night. I have yet to hear anyone from the windy city complain. What makes Palm Beach different from Cook County? Are people up north more intelligent than those living in the sunshine state?
It’s Thursday Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. as I write this column. The latest recounts from Florida have barely changed who won the election. They’re practically the same as when I went to bed Wednesday morning.
Bush is still in the lead with 2,909,661 and Gore; 2,907,877.
We may not know until Nov. 17th when all the overseas ballots are counted before, we find out who won.
I seriously doubt it will end there. Bush is already forming a cabinet. The Gore campaign wants to file a lawsuit and have the final decision made by the courts.
Personally, I am sick of hearing about it.
My advice to the Bush and Gore camps is to think about what is in the best interest for the country and have one concede.
No one’s going to like the outcome regardless of who wins.
©11/15/2000
No comments:
Post a Comment