by Mark Silva
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who ran for president in 2008, suggests that the long-disputed election of 2000 is evidence of modern-day "problems" in the greatest democracy on Earth, which is "still evolving'' - a lesson that she imparted in Nigeria near the close of a seven-nation African tour.
And that 2000 election, she notes, was decided in the state where the Republican candidate's brother was governor.
"Our democracy is still evolving.... We had all kinds of problems in some of our past elections... .In 2000, our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of the man running for president was the governor of the state. So we have our problems too,'' the Democrat said at a town hall meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, which has its own electoral problems.
The secretary's suggestion that the disputed 537-vote margin in Florida in 2000 and the 36-day court battle over flawed ballots that landed in the U.S. Supreme Court had something to do with then-Gov. Jeb Bush has raised the hackles of at least one commentator today: Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC news-talk-show host who was a Republican congressman from Pensacola during that election battle.
The idea that Jeb Bush "rigged'' the election is "an unfair slanderous assessment,'' Scarrborough complained on air today.
Answering a question about Nigeria's recent elections, Clinton also praised the 2008 elections in the United States as an example of how they should work - gracious words for a Democrat who lost her party's nomination to President Barack Obama and then signed on as his chief diplomat. Clinton is closing an 11-day tour of Africa this week.
"I know a little bit about running elections and I have won some elections, and, I have lost some elections," Clinton said. "In my country the man that I was running against and spent a lot of time and effort to defeat, asked me to join his government. So there is a way to begin to make this transition that will lead to free and fair elections in 2011'' in Nigeria.
As for that 2000 contest, it is taking some liberties to suggest that Jeb Bush is responsible for George W. Bush''s narrow Florida victory and success in the ballot-contest that followed.
It was Bush's well-established political organization that helped amass a strong vote for his older brother in the state.
But it wasn't Bush -- rather then-Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris -- who oversaw the state's voting.
It was 67 county-elected supervisors of elections around the state who produced some of the ballots that resulted in "dimpled and pregnant chads'' on punchcard ballots and the infamous, confusing "butterfly ballot'' in Palm Beach County.
And it was a pre-Jeb Bush-seated Florida Supreme Court that demanded a reexamination of disputed ballots - only to have the U.S. court call an end to the dispute, handing Bush the White House.
An independent county-by-county inspection of the disputed ballots after the election conducted by The Miami Herald and a team of accountants, in which yours truly participated, found that even a liberal acceptance of disputed "under-voted'' ballots would not have closed the 537-vote gap with which Bush carried Florida.
Indeed, the administration of Bill Clinton, which Hillary Clinton remembers well, could have played a greater role in denying Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, the Sunshine State in 2000.
The administration's removal of young Cuban refugee Elian Gonzales at gunpoint from his relatives' home in Miami before dawn one day early in that election year did a lot of damage to a growing base of Cuban-American support that Clinton had built in his successful bid for reelection in 1996, when he carried Florida.
Then there was that matter of Gore losing his own home state, which had no Bush in the governor's mansion.
Comments
Thank you, Madame Secretary. The Bush&Cheney fringe should be given all the credit they deserve, for the state of America, these past six months. Thank goodness, the American electorate had enough and voted for a sea-change, in our national politics. Now, we have an administration, President Obama's, that cares about everyday Americans and is even willing to lose some of his prestige, to fight for our right to honest, affordable healthcare. That, ladies and gentlemen of America, is leadership !! Something that took a sneak for the past two administrations, the Bush&Cheney fringe years !! We welcome this national leadership back, into our White House. Long may it prosper !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | August 13, 2009 10:55 AM
Weird, reckless statement by Clinton. Why is it a "problem" that Jeb Bush was governor? Is she suggesting he interfered or influenced the results? Factual basis please.
Posted by: Herbie H. | August 13, 2009 12:12 PM
Factual basis please.
Posted by: Herbie H. | August 13, 2009 12:12 PM
Like birthers and death panels?
Posted by: bill r. | August 13, 2009 12:39 PM
The claim that even if all the "under-voted ballots" had been counted, Gore would've won is absolutely disingenuous. As you no doubt know, a full review of "all" the votes, not just the four counties requested by Gore, would've favored the former vice president. Indeed, "liberal acceptance of disputed 'under-voted''' notwithstanding, if Gore had demanded a full statewide recount instead of only Volusia, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade,, the 537-vote gap would've vanished and Gore would've become our 43rd president.
Posted by: Mimi Schaeffer | August 13, 2009 12:44 PM
Oops, I meant Gore would not have won.(
Posted by: Mimi Schaeffer | August 13, 2009 2:03 PM
This coming from a woman who would be nowhere if he hadn't clung to her husband's coattails. Once again she has shown herself an embarrassment. What a brilliant choice by Obama. After her performance as SOS no one would ever vote for her for president.
Posted by: Guy Williams | August 13, 2009 2:15 PM
Headline: "Clinton visits Liberia, backs woman president"
Hillary then proceeded to say that her Liberian birth certificate can be found on FactCheck.org
LOL
Posted by: Hillary | August 13, 2009 2:31 PM
Headline: "Clinton visits Liberia, backs woman president"
Hillary then proceeded to say that her Liberian birth certificate can be found on FactCheck.org
LOL
Posted by: Hillary | August 13, 2009 2:32 PM
Secretary of State Clinton needs is tired and needs to come home. First she gets in to an argument with an African college student at a question and answer session, and now she is comparing U.S. Presidential Elections to those in Africa. Regarding the 2000 Presidential Election if Gore had carried his home state of Tennessee, Florida would not have mattered. Plus Third Party Candidate Ralph Nader got 70,000 votes, many that would have probably gone to Gore. And as pointed out in the article there was an independent recount led by The Miami Herald after the election showed that the 500 plus vote Bush victory remained in place. Hillary needs to come home and get some rest. She is tired and is starting to make embarrassing misstatements.
Posted by: Depot Jim | August 13, 2009 2:54 PM
Seriously Hilary, let it go.
I know you wish Al Gore won in 2000, but that was almost a decade ago.
I think it's time to move on now.
Posted by: Johnny Weak | August 13, 2009 3:31 PM
I'm glad Hillary didn't win...it would have been just a disaster. Sorry...
Posted by: danny day | August 13, 2009 4:38 PM
BillyR,
"Like birthers and death panels?"
Like 9-11 Inside job people?
Posted by: Terry | August 13, 2009 5:50 PM
The thefts of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections are proven historical facts. The only people disputing them are corporate media shills and the right fringe.
Posted by: libhomo | August 13, 2009 9:12 PM
i think its time to move now... seriously...
Posted by: hire | August 14, 2009 7:30 AM
Actually, Ms Clinton's remarks don't "stand on their own" because as a result of the Florida debacle, to which she refers, the country was handed a doofus president for 2000-2004.
That this doofus was actually elected to the post in 2004 speaks, perhaps, more to the evolutionary state of our education system, and not our voting one.
Posted by: Emlyn | August 14, 2009 10:59 AM
Hillary...,sour grapes, get over it. The country is better off without Gore or you for that matter.
Posted by: Paul | August 14, 2009 5:27 PM
Man, with the Democrats whining about health care protests, now we get their whining over the 2000 election.
Make it stop! Make it stop!
Posted by: The Audacity of Hype | August 14, 2009 8:09 PM
The U.S. Spupreme Court prevented the Florida Supreme Court from overstepping Forida State laws in an attempt to elect our president.
By the way Ms. Clinton, America is a Republic, not a Democracy. There is a big difference!
Posted by: Jon Dorian | August 18, 2009 11:25 AM
God Bless Hilary Clinton!
Posted by: Limo Hire | August 19, 2009 8:43 AM