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Read other letters about this article
Farhad Manjoo and the editors at Salon should know by now that I am not a fan of the great majority of his work. The one exception that comes readily to mind is his fairly recent article on the net neutrality debate which was excellent. Having said that, and also wanting to make clear that I don't think Manjoo should be the go-to guy on election 2004 any more than Michelle Goldberg should be the reporter covering anti-war rallies sponsored by ANSWER or Arabs in NYC, I believe what he writes in this article is correct.
I do believe that Republicans like Ohio's Ken Blackwell did have their thumbs on the scale in 2004 and did everything they could to make the outcome as favorable to Bush as possible, but I don't believe election 2004 was stolen from John Kerry. The fact is, John Kerry just wasn't a very good candidate and Bush/Rove used everything they could to whip up "vote for us or die" fear. Remember all the terror warnings? Remember how they stopped right after the election? Remember how Bush's good buddy Osama bin Laden came to his rescue with a well-timed video tape in October?
We have seen a stolen election. That happened in 2000 in Florida (Perhaps Manjoo could write about that?) and it ultimately involved a plainly partisan, extraconstitutional ruling by the USSC to pull it off. ("The counting of votes must be stopped lest Mr. Bush's claim to the presidency suffer irreparable harm.") But 2004? No, not stolen. At least not in Ohio.
RFK Jr. really shook my faith in his ability to approach issues honestly with his previous article on vaccinations and autism. His current work on display in Rolling Stone is little if any better.
People posting comments here really should not resort to vulgarities and accusations of being a Republican hack simply because Manjoo does not tell them what it is they want to hear. In this case, Manjoo is right. Bush was not elected in 2000 but he surely was in 2004. For him, 9/11 was the gift that kept on giving. His other gift in 2004? A Democratic Party that offered up John "I voted for the 87 billion before I voted against it" and "The Iraq war is a mistake but knowing everything I know now, I still would have voted for it" Kerry as a candidate because people in Iowa voted not for the guy with clear positions but for the guy they thought the rest of the country would somehow find "electable."
Really people, I voted for John Kerry but even I had a hard time selling and explaining him to others. It speaks volumes that we came as close to winning as we did with Kerry at the top of the ticket. We lost. It wasn't stolen.
