November 05, 2004
Clueless hack author insists Kerry won election
Hack columnist Greg Palast, who fancies himself as a kind of Michael Moore for the UK, insists in today's column that John Kerry won the majority of the vote in Ohio, and -- at least by his reckoning -- won the election.
Palast tries to use CNN's exit polling data to justify his outlandish position, completely ignoring the actual counts from the state Secretary of State's office. He incredibly attempts to use the race card to further bolster his insane position.
At 1:05 a.m. Wednesday morning, CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. The exit polls were later combined with—and therefore contaminated by—the tabulated results, ultimately becoming a mirror of the apparent actual vote. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent.Palast also insists that the close victory in New Mexico also belongs to Kerry. He blames provisional balloting in that case. What Palast doesn't tell you is that the bulk of the provisional vote -- something the DEMOCRATS insisted on -- went for Democratic candidates (including Kerry), and Kerry still lost the state.the exit polls are accurate. Pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote counted?" The voters don't know.
The election in Ohio was not decided by the voters but by something called "spoilage." Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of the vote is voided, just thrown away, not recorded.
And not all votes spoil equally. Most of those votes, say every official report, come from African-American and minority precincts.
Palast is one who rabidly hates the GOP in general, and the Bush Administration in particular.
Palast practically wanted to desecrate Ronald Reagan's grave, and insisted that he was "in hell" for what he had done in office.
What Palast has little consequence to anyone on this side of the Atlantic, but in the UK, he does his best to stir up as much anti-American sentiment as he possibly can.
Posted by mhking at November 5, 2004 06:48 PMOne of the problems with the "outing" of the Main Stream Media as liberally-biased, and the consequent rise of conservative news outlets, is that increasingly nobody knows whom to believe. So people are seeking out news sources that editorally match their political leanings; since now most of their "news" comes through that filter, they are pulled even further into partisan positions.
And idiots like Palast find themselves with readers who read only him, with no dissenting voice.
It's getting dangerous.
Posted by: Tony Iovino at November 6, 2004 06:42 AMAny movement to correct any wrong doings will allways face opposition. Hence the USA and in particular Bush. I would really like to see the far left move to the right in order to bridge the gap that they say needs to be filled. By the way when radical fascist Islam takes over France it will be the USA that will help free them.
Posted by: Turner Miles at November 6, 2004 12:17 PMThese idiots who complain about our voting system fail to realize this same system put Clinton into office twice. I bet they thought it worked just fine back then. The people have spoken so it is time those idiots learned to deal with the loss.
Posted by: Kathleen Hawke at November 6, 2004 07:39 PMBy the way when radical fascist Islam takes over France it will be the USA that will help free them.
Posted by Turner Miles at November 6, 2004 12:17 PM
don't be stupid.
Posted by: young-white-and-liberal at November 7, 2004 05:02 PM"young-white-and-liberal" said, "don't be stupid" to the quote of, "By the way when radical fascist Islam takes over France it will be the USA that will help free them."
Would you care to explain that or would that just be a stupid question?
Posted by: likwidshoe at November 18, 2004 08:48 AM