Slaying the Goliath

(The first article in a series about the legacy of President George W. Bush.)

With the Presidency of George W. Bush nearing its conclusion, a co-worker of mine provided me with the idea of reflection upon the many trials, accomplishments, and even failures of our 43rd President and his administration - a study of the legacy of President George W. Bush. This will be the first of several such articles, and where better to start then the beginning?

George W. Bush's first campaign and subsequent election as President of the United States will forever be a part of his legacy in a way unlike any President before him. His election is abundant with criticism from the Left, who to this day cannot let go of their loss of the Presidency in 2000. The academic Left has already written the story of how Bush "stole the election" into public and higher education textbooks - to them it is a matter of historical fact; moreover, I would argue that the Left's relentless assault on President Bush over the past seven years stems largely from their inability to let go of such a close loss - not to mention their disdain of President Bush's Pro-American and Anti-Socialist policies.

In 2000, George W. Bush overwhelmingly won the Republican Party's nomination at the Republican National Convention, and the stage was set for a hard fought campaign against the incumbent Vice President, Al Gore. Many political pundits predicted a close election as the November 7th election night grew closer. No one, however, predicted the infamous turn of events that would take place. We all know how they traditionally divide up. The blue states voted for Gore and the red states voted for Bush.

Nearing the conclusion of the evening, Gore had 266 electoral votes. Bush had 246. 270 electoral votes are needed to win the Presidency, and Florida's 25 votes were still undetermined. Eventually, Bush was awarded the win and Florida's 25 votes, giving him 271 - just enough to win the Presidency. At around 3AM, Al Gore called and conceded the election to Bush; however, the final returns showed that Bush had won the state by less than 2,000 votes. This small a margin of victory triggered an automatic recount under Florida law, and Gore withdrew his concession pending the results of the recount.

After the first recount, Bush's margin of victory had dwindled to less than 500 votes. In response, Gore then asked for further recounts, by hand, of four heavily Democratic counties in Florida, and so began the controversy of the "hanging chad" and numerous lawsuits. The lawsuits resulted in what will surely be remembered as one of the most famous Supreme Court cases of all time: Bush v. Gore.

In summation of the case, the Court put an end to Gore's endless recounts. The Court relied on two arguments. First, the process of recounting all the votes violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Since there was no systematic way of deciding which ballots were an actual vote for a candidate and which candidate they were a vote for, the Court said that some people's vote would be handled differently in some counties than in others. Some counties might consider a hanging chad a vote for Gore, while another county may not consider such a hanging chad a vote for Bush.

The second argument was that continued recounts violated Article II of the United States Constitution, which dictates that each state shall appoint electors "in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct." The Florida Supreme Court had extended the recount deadline set by the legislature prior to this controversy. Hence, the state judiciary was changing the guidelines set forth by the state legislature.

Of course, the Left will continue to argue that the Supreme Court picked who they wanted to be President. The truth is, in the case of Bush v. Gore, the Left itself has again shown complete disregard for the letter of the United States Constitution to further their own agenda. The Supreme Court did nothing more than uphold the law. Gore would have continued to recount those ballots forever and ever until he was awarded those 25 electoral votes, and the decision about what did or did not constitute a vote was based solely upon the interpretation of the workers of those heavily Democratic counties. Perhaps, if we had hand recounted heavily Republican counties, then they could have counted all of the Bush hanging chads as well.

Nonetheless, Bush v. Gore remains a bold piece of the election process of President George W. Bush. It will, therefore, always remain a part of his legacy.