So, Kerry has conceded. The ultimate flip-flop.
Reflecting on it a bit, I don't think Kerry really had much option but to concede. Rove learned the lesson of 2000 perfectly. When you're facing defeat, it's good to cheat.
First cheat to establish a lead, then have your TV networks beat the drum all night for your guy and demand to know why the other guy is doing badly in the running tallies. You are forcing the other
guy to prove the cheating immediately, but you both know he's going to have to drag it out in the courts, and then it will be hard to prove.
Then rely on the public to get pissed off with the dragging out--Attention Deficit Disorder is a plague spread by Republicans. And just in case the lower court rulings don't favor you, stack the Supreme Court well ahead of time.
Kerry conceding mainly because he wouldn't go through with the charade. Gore had some legitimacy because he won the popular vote. Crucially, Kerry lost the popular vote, even minus the cheating--the exit polls said so, and I believe the exit polls, if not the official count. The rethugs were basically saying to him, ok, we stole it. What you gonna do about it? Gonna run to some faggot judge? Hey, we fucking
own the top court. We fucking
own the media. We own the election machines, the election supervisors, the corporations, the Congress, and the presidency. We ARE the Ownership Society, buddy. So, what you gonna do about it?
It's one thing to contest fraud when you've won the popular vote and have a fair shake with the media. Kerry has neither of these. He'd be crucified a la Gore/Lieberman as Soreloserman II. The public would say, because the media told them to say it, that they didn't want to go through the process of establishing fraud, with an accompanying commentary of "he said/they said but who knows the truth--not us---and now a message from our sponsor---but before that we leave you with this thought---can't we just rally round our brave Commander-in-chief in this time of a War on Terror?"
Without a fair media, and without instant proof of
result-changing fraud, it was really not politically possible for Kerry to keep up a challenge for an Electoral College win. A year from now expect to see a report by Palast, a book by Moore, and countless articles in the liberal publications plus documentaries showing how Rove stole the election. But by then it's too late, and not enough of the public will care.
We should have known better. We did know better. Having no paper trail was known to be a problem long ago
Another thing. Voting in this country has obviously become a big farcical bananarepublican mess. The lines were so huge in areas of high Dem turnout that many left without voting, though they may have bumped into an exit pollster when departing. The electoral system itself is corrupt. It's controlled by the party officials, so if one side wants to cheat, they're in a great position to do so.
Another thing is that in urban areas, it was too
difficult for working class voters to get time off work, or time to make it to their own precinct from a cross-town commute, etc. The voting procedures themselves reveal a strong class bias---registration bureaucracy, stable residence, etc. The turn out was whatever it was. But tens of millions of people still didn't vote in the world's self-styled 'greatest democracy'.
Kerry would also have been facing a huge fiscal deficit, a Republican dominated Congress, and the quagmire of Iraq. Not an enticing prospect.
The cards were stacked against him.
So he conceded.
"And now. Let's go back to the killing of towelheads and sand niggers. Here with a live report, Media Dickhead in Ramadi or wheteverthehellyoucall it. Media, what's the latest? What can you tell us?"
Not a whole fuckin lot!