Jameson — first, no need to apologize. Those of us who engage on blogs or news discussion threads better be thick-skinned or there is no reason to engage. Second, I have largely been impressed with Benjamin Awesome’s posts, so there is that bias. Third, would you trust some random guy’s contention that he has run all the ‘necessary’ statistical analyses and reached the same conclusion — that Gore ‘should’ have or “would” have won — which has been contested from the beginning.

Let’s be real, there really is no solid way to gauge the people who stayed home as a result of the early call. We can apply a multitude of statistical operations, but none is truly reliable, because all results need to be interpreted.

I have yet to see an analysis that supports the claim that Gore was cheated of the Presidency in a way that doesn’t raise eyebrows.

Finally, none of this is really about the Gore-Bush election. Our system allows for third party votes, write-ins, and abstentions. All are valid responses to a pair of candidates who are simply unacceptable. Voting one’s conscience, by definition, is not about picking a winner, or about caring which unacceptable candidate is successful.