THE 279 TRIGGER

While I am an incurable optimist, today I’m putting on my black hat and taking a look at the dark side.

All those prayers that whoever wins on the 2nd let it be a clear and convincing win, are just whistles in the twilight. The litigation war contesting 2004 will make 2000 look like a small skirmish. Kerry has made a decision: that if the electoral vote is less than 280 – that is, even if Bush wins by 9 electoral votes — he will not concede. It takes 50%+1 of the 538 in total: 270.

Recall that Al Gore did concede late Tuesday night November 7th – then rescinded his concession after midnight, launching his legal war to win the presidency in the courts. That’s the precedent. The Democrats have decided that with the precedent established, they will make the same attempt again. 279 is the trigger – if Bush wins states that add up to no more than 279 electoral votes, Kerry refuses to concede and legally contests the results.

Confronted with Kerry’s decision, Bush has now decided he will do the same.

The armies of lawyers are being assembled to contest the election results, the Dems led by David Boies’s partner Steve Zak, the GOP led by Ted Olsen (Boies argued for Gore, Olsen for Bush to the Supreme Court in 2000). It will be full scale legal war.

We have Al Gore to thank for this. And Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, who purposefully called Florida for Gore before the polls in the Florida Panhandle had closed. The Panhandle is on Central time, one hour earlier than the rest of the state – and is heavily Republican. Rather and Jennings knew that if they called the state for Gore before tens of thousands of Panhandle Republicans had voted, many would hear the news, give up, and go home without voting. Afterwards they claimed it was a “mistake,” they had “forgotten” the Panhandle was on Central time – and gloated over denying Bush the votes that would have won Florida easily.

What shocked them, and Gore, is that Bush didn’t take the challenge lying down supinely like they expect all Republicans to do. He fought back, and hard. It amazed the Dems to find that just being bullies didn’t work anymore, and they were in a real gouge-your-eyes-out, kick-in-the-groin street fight. They were outraged that their bullying and cheating didn’t win – and they remain outraged to this day. Thus their pathological desire for revenge at any cost.

At any cost – even the cost of destroying the democratic legitimacy of American government for the American people and the world. At the cost of America ceasing to become a democracy, becoming a krytocracy, a government run by judges.

The only way this will be avoided is that if Bush wins over 279 electoral votes. It is very doubtful that Kerry can do so. If Kerry wins, he will win barely. In fact, it is very hard to see how Kerry could win even 270 without massive voter fraud. We know this because the evidence for such voter fraud is already overwhelming.

Just one tiny example: The deputy registrar for Racine, Wisconsin, placed in office by Democrats, is an illegal alien.

GW has decided if massive voter fraud provides Kerry’s thin margin of victory, then it must be contested. We can use violence metaphors to describe such a contest – war, street fight, etc. But courtroom “battles” are only wars of words. The great danger is that the election will be contested not only in courtrooms, but in the streets.

In the last weeks, there has been an epidemic of violence across the entire country perpetrated by AFL-CIO and Democrat thugs vandalizing and burglarizing Bush-Cheney campaign offices. Elizabeth Edwards, the Breck Boy’s wife, has publicly threatened riots if the John-Johns don’t win. A Democrat in Sarasota tried to run down Congresswoman (and former Florida secretary of state) Katherine Harris and a group of Republicans with his car. This could get very ugly, folks. Or rather, much, much uglier.

It could get so ugly with thuggish street violence that the most frighteningly consequential difference between liberals and their adversaries may become real-world apparent. The difference is that liberals are advocates of gun control. Which means they don’t have any guns. An “armed liberal” is an oxymoron. An “armed conservative” is a redundancy.

I don’t want to speculate any further here. It’s enough to grasp just how nightmarish the next days, weeks, and months could get. So whistles or not – keep praying. Pray that GW gets to 280. Pray for America. Our country may be in mortal peril.