That's The Fact Jack!

I understand that several prominent bloggers are being added to some people's shit list because they either aren't taking the allegations of voter fraud seriously enough or are openly asking those pushing those allegations to back off on the more extreme allegations until stronger evidence is found.

Well, I may not be a prominent blogger, but I guess I'm going to join them on those lists.

Now, there most definitely were many questionable things about what happened in this election. All of those things must be investigated. But just because some things smell funny does not mean the entire system is nothing but a load of crap.

I understand the emotions are high on this issue and I agree completely that ensuring accurate vote counting should be one of are major priorities. The people must have faith that their electoral system works. But there is a bigger issue that is getting obscured in all the minutiae of voting machine confabulation.

To borrow a from the sporting world: Bad calls are part of the game.

The trick to avoid getting into a situation where bad calls can be decisive.

In all the talk about 500 votes here or 7,000 votes there we are losing sight of the fact that over 59 million people voted for Bush! Even if we assume some of the worst about possible voter fraud, its unlikely that that could account for more than 5 million of Bush's vote total (and I think I'm being generous here). That would still mean that Bush was close enough to Kerry that fraud (bad calls) could be decisive.

This is bad folks!

A guy who is obviously unqualified to hold the position of dog catcher, a guy who has lied consistently to the American people on a whole range of issues, a guy who has systematically turned the engine of government over to a small band of cronies, a guy who has destroyed nearly every vestige of international credibility this country has spent 200 years building up, still somehow managed to convince over 55 million Americans that he was the better choice for the most powerful position in the history of the Earth!

No amount of cleaning up our electoral system is going to compensate for The Fact that we are getting our asses kicked by an idiot!

Some people may not like to hear this, but its The Fact. We claim to be the party that governs based on the facts, but we seem unwilling to confront The Fact. We must confront The Fact and deal with The Fact if we are to turn this thing around.

Flame away if you must, but no amount of yelling will make The Fact go away.