"A Lobotomy for Democracy"

[TruthIsAll]

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20041106T200000-0500_68984_OBS_A_LOBOTOMY_FOR_DEMOCRACY.asp

A Lobotomy for Democracy
JOHN MAXWELL

snip...

For me, the defining moment of last week's US Presidential Election came about an hour before midnight. All night the CNN anchor, General Blitzer, had been refusing to reveal the results of the exit polls; CNN didn't want to mislead people. But it was nevertheless becoming clear that John Kerry was going to be the next president of the United States. Robert Novak was a panellist on Blitzer's show. Wan, demoralised, and apparently near to complete collapse, Novak told Blitzer that he had just been in touch with his GOP cronies in Ohio who told him that all appeared to be lost.

What Novak did not know was that help was on the way in the shape of the Diebold company, makers of electronic voting machines. Within hours, Kerry was no longer winning but on the road to conceding the election to Mr G W Bush. The Republicans had stolen the presidency of the United States for the second time in a row.

The most significant thing about the state of US politics is the compliant posture of the national press. They seem ready to believe anything. They appear to have been lobotomised, physically present but missing their souls.

Mark Twain got it right: "Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the press, for they will steal your Honour. That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse".

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[Carolab]

1. Wow. Mr. Maxwell had it DOWN.

One typo here though:

"We must believe, contrary to all the known facts, that there was a swing to Bush of eight per cent! Bush got 32 per cent more in 2004 than four years before, while Kerry increased Bush's total by only 19 per cent."

Didn't he mean Kerry increased Gore's total by only 19 percent?

[TruthIsAll]

2. He has his numbers wrong.

In the official tally, Bush went from 50.5 mm to 62 mm, a 24% gain But he really got around 57mm, a 13% increase.

Gore had 51mm votes. Kerry's official total was 59mm (up 15%) .
But he really got at least 62mm, a 22% increase.