Saturday, August 15, 2009

I'm With Hillary...

Recently there was some commotion over Hillary Clinton's comments concerning the 2000 election. Well, FWIW, I agree completely.

I just happened to be in Jacksonville, Florida on business on election night 2000 and I was watching the results play out on TV. I agreed with Tim Russert that the state I was in at the time was crucial and, even though I couldn't vote (being a resident of California, which I was pretty sure was safe for the Democrats), I was rooting for where I was to go Democratic as well. And when they projected Florida going to Gore, I was whooping and hollering and planning how to celebrate with my friends when I returned home.

And then, to my dismay, I see the newscasters taking back their projection. I, of course, knew that Jeb was the governor of Florida and I thought to myself at the time, "Boy, I bet the phone lines are burning right about now between either Crawford, Texas (where I assumed W was) or Kennebunkport, Maine (where I assumed daddy was) and the Governor's residence in Florida. Probably both, actually...". At that point, I came to the realization that there was no way the Bushes were going to let Gore take the state their son ran. And we paid for it for the next 8 years.

Now, this may be a bit provocative, but I wonder... if Florida was not "stolen" in 2000, there might be around 3000 plus people still alive (including someone I knew) and a couple of buildings that I still miss (having grown up in NY and having seen them being built) might still be standing.

Hillary, you go girl!

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