Can You Spot the Boldface Lie?*
Here, let me help.
From the New York Post:
SCALIA RAPS GORE FOR '00
By FRANKIE EDOZIEN
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says the high court did not inject itself into the 2000 presidential election.
Speaking at the Time Warner Center last night, Scalia said: "The election was dragged into the courts by the Gore people. We did not go looking for trouble."
But he said the court had to take the case.
"The issue was whether Florida's Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court [would decide the election.] What did you expect us to do? Turn the case down because it wasn't important enough?"
The conservative justice, who grew up in Queens, contended there would have been a difficult transition had the court not stepped in.
He also pointed out that studies by news organizations after the election showed Bush still would have won a Florida recount.
NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc. NYPOST.COM, NYPOSTONLINE.COM, and NEWYORKPOST.COM are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc. Copyright 2005 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
*Pre-emptive strike against the language police: I know it's "bald-faced lie," but sometimes incorrect usage works to your advantage. --ed.
From the New York Post:
SCALIA RAPS GORE FOR '00
By FRANKIE EDOZIEN
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says the high court did not inject itself into the 2000 presidential election.
Speaking at the Time Warner Center last night, Scalia said: "The election was dragged into the courts by the Gore people. We did not go looking for trouble."
But he said the court had to take the case.
"The issue was whether Florida's Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court [would decide the election.] What did you expect us to do? Turn the case down because it wasn't important enough?"
The conservative justice, who grew up in Queens, contended there would have been a difficult transition had the court not stepped in.
He also pointed out that studies by news organizations after the election showed Bush still would have won a Florida recount.
NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc. NYPOST.COM, NYPOSTONLINE.COM, and NEWYORKPOST.COM are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc. Copyright 2005 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
*Pre-emptive strike against the language police: I know it's "bald-faced lie," but sometimes incorrect usage works to your advantage. --ed.
posted by DO at 4:31 PM
7 Comments:
It's a good thing you averted the language police with that footnote. Your headline was inflammatory...from a usage standpoint.
My grandmother in Miami died in April, 2000. As Election Day progressed, and it looked like Florida would be key, I urged my mother to go vote as Nana. The election records probably had not been updated and "Nana would have wanted to vote for Gore." Alas, my mother didn't want to risk committing fraud (plus they lived in the same building, so the pollwatchers might have noticed if my mother voted twice as different people).
I wonder how many dead people did vote in Florida. Nana could have made a difference!
It wouldn't have made a difference, because those aforementioned studies by news organizations actually showed that Gore won Florida. They came to this conclusion using every possible recount method save one, which happened to be the very method the Gore camp asked for. (Maybe that tells us something about what his presidency would have been like.)
Shhh, don't ruin my "Nana could have saved the election" story with the FACTS!
Um, what?
"The statewide manual recount of the votes that the Florida Supreme Court had ordered to go forward" is not the same thing as completely and accurately counting all the votes (e.g., accounting for all the Jews who "voted" for Buchanan). If memory serves me correctly (and I'm not willing to plunk down the money to confirm it), this is the same article that then goes on to lay out the various results you get when you correct for the "overvotes" and "undervotes," resulting in Gore winning the electoral vote in Florida.
I think this lie could be either bold- or bald- faced. It's both impudent (bold-faced) and brash (bald-faced). Safe!
(...not that I'm a member of the LP, because I'm totally not...)
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