re: It's 2000; What are you arguing here regarding who won Florida?

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WTF does this mean?

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It means that leadership is about perception. And considering that I have served the entire time that the current conflict has gone on (to include two combat tours), it was clear it was no longer a publicly stated goal of our military to find and eliminate UBL. Does not mean it was not going on behind the scenes, but it was not a primary, stated goal of the administration.

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Actually, Bush really did win and by quite a bit more than originally thought.

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If by 537 out of 6 million cast is quite a bit, then you're correct.

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Bush won in every way possible and would have been declared the winner even if the Supreme Court had not stepped in.

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Not entirely true:

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The media reported the results of the study during the week after November 12, 2001. The results of the study showed that had the limited county by county recounts requested by the Gore team been completed, Bush would still have been the winner of the election. However, the study also showed that the result of a statewide recount of all disputed ballots could have been different.

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So you're correct in saying had the S.Ct. Not stepped in Bush would have won but only because Gore screwed up in only asking for limited counties in the recount. Had they recounted every county, Gore could have won. The word could is used because there is still the issue of how the votes should be counted.

And even counting limited counties Gore could have won but for this:

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The media recount study found that under the system of limited recounts in selected counties as was requested by the Gore campaign, the only way that Gore would have won was by using counting methods that were never requested by any party, including "overvotes" — ballots containing more than one vote for an office. While some of these ballots recorded votes for two separate candidates, a significant number (20 percent in Lake County, for example) were cases of a voter voting for a candidate and then also writing in that same candidate's name on the write-in line.

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And then there's the issue of the butterfly ballot in Broward County in heavily Jewish elderly precincts where Buchanan got a huge number of votes as compared to his votes in other counties with the same demographic but different voting machine. Buchanan's name was on the opposite page as gore's and their punch holes were one on top of the other.

In the end, had the roles been reversed and if Gore's brother were governor of Florida, and his campaign leader was Secretary of State of Florida who stopped the counting and his father had appointees on the Supreme Court who stopped the counting, conservatives on this board would still be starting threads claiming the election was stolen.

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You think that the CIA just found OBL once BO became POTUS?

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Liberals actually do believe this.

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Yep, it was all those years of intelligence gathering, coupled with the many alliances Obama and Biden established, coupled with Obama's creation of Seal Team Six, culminating with Obama leading the assault on the compound in Abbottabad, and him actually pulling the trigger that got bin Laden.

BTW does anybody know the whereabouts of that Pakistani doctor whose cover was blown by somebody in the Bush White House?

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I still have no idea how that election was so damn close. Sure in hindsight, Bush wasn't what we were promised during his campaigned and he largely turned into a big government neocon, but at the time there were few objectively good reasons to vote for Gore. Bush was the overwhelmingly logical choice at the time, far moreso than what we saw in 2004, 2008 or 2012.

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Ah you kids... On paper Gore was by far the better choice. Former congressman, senator Vice President. OTOH Bush had never held a job in his entire life besides being governor. And I'm not joking. He was a complete frick up with no history of employment in the 70s. In the 80s he started up businesses which all failed. Then the group who owned the Rangers needed to build a stadium and needed some pull to acquire property by eminent domaine, Bush was asked to come on board and was given a percentage of the team. His dad was president.

Then Bush ran for governor in Texas, Jeb ran in Florida. George won and Jeb lost. Had Jeb won and not been set back a term, Jeb would have been the one running in 2000.

Gore was a god awful campaigner and had had a falling out with Clinton. Gore pushed the very popular Clinton away.

So America was left with two losers and the final results, with Gore beating Bush by 500,000 votes but losing the electoral by 1 state in a state of 6 million with 537 vote difference shows you America was like WTF? Why these two clowns?

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Why these two clowns?

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Seems to be what the parties want to give us as choices.

I wish there was not such Bush fatigue (understandable) as I always have thought Jeb would make a fairly good prez.

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And that was 14 years ago. I mean, the country would probably be better off if he won. No iraq. No obama.

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It seems pretty hard to know what Gore would have possibly done in the face of 9/11.

I'm not saying he would have done something worse. I'm not saying he would have done something better. I'm just saying, it's pretty much impossible to guess upon at this juncture.

I guess, it may be fun for some to pretend they have a better idea, though.

Bush won, period.

Jeb would have been far the better candidate and probably better president. The family never thought way back when that it would be W to eventually get to the WH.

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I'm not saying he would have done something worse. I'm not saying he would have done something better. I'm just saying, it's pretty much impossible to guess upon at this juncture.

I guess, it may be fun for some to pretend they have a better idea, though.

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this is why I say....

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But who knows for sure?

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I think we would have been better off but i cannot say for certaintity.

Doesn't this board think romney would do a better job than obama? Why could I not think gore would do better than bush. equally valid IMHO.