I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. The Florida presidential voting showed us who was willing to play by the rules and who wasn't.
Florida's rules were clear. Recounts had to be done a week after the election. Absentees had to be counted ten days later. Then the vote must be certified.
The election was unbelievably close, but that happens. George W. Bush was willing to play by the rules, and the Gore contingent wasn't, nor were people like Jesse Jackson, who couldn't wait to hop a plane for Florida to start fanning the flames of discontent.
And another thing. Did you notice the nice bit of vintage Clintonism at work? If you can't win, slander. After the Republican Secretary of State had the nerve to say she was going to — gasp!! — enforce the law, she was immediately torched by the gore people as a party hack. The Democratic judges and election officials on the other side were, naturally, without partisan blemish.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, a Final Election Mop Up.