Election blogging

Since everyone has to link to Atrios at least once a month, (it's a law, you know) I agree with everything he said here:

But, irregularities and questionable results are not necessarily "proof" of "fraud" and "proof" that the "election was stolen. " If people want this issue to be taken seriously they need to stop thinking that any of the information floating around right now - and yes, I've seen it all multiple times - provides proof of any such thing. Yes, legitimate questions have been raised, but I fear people on "our side" have started to confuse the legitimate questions with the answers to those questions they've imagined. I'm fully ready to believe that everything was corrupt in Florida, Ohio, and elsewhere, but thinking and knowing are different things entirely.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's not afraid to come out as a moderate on this issue. Further, as I have said before, we're not going to get Bush out of office. Not through lawsuits, not through impeachment, nothing. The man has beaten us, and it's better to accept that and focus our energies against him to fight against his agenda. This isn't to say that I don't support an investigation, but I'd be much happier if it was done in the context of election reform, and not rabid Bush hate.

And how come I'm the only blogger who's looked at the votes from 1996 to help explain why Bush could get thousands of votes from small Florida counties? I'm not saying that the extra amount of votes isn't strange, but just because a story supports our side doesn't mean we should stop thinking critically. Until somebody can tell me why Bill Clinton didn't get a 50% majority of the votes in the rural counties that gave a few thousand more votes to Bush this year, then I'm not buying that the behavior is so abnormal. We have to have better evidence than this.

However, on the confusion of exit polls and my dismissal of the results as being within the margin of error, I going to have to eat a little crow. If Karen Hughes took the exit polls seriously enough to tell Bush he lost the election, then maybe I should take them more seriously, too.

BOPnews has an election links clearinghouse. I haven't been able to look all of them over yet, but it's supposed to be constantly updated. So bookmark it.

Bev Harris has a mainstream media source who told her outright that they will not be covering election fraud stories. (Hattip: Rimone)

Also via Rimone: "Congressional Democrats Ask GAO to Probe Election Problems."