Fuck Al Gore, and his patronizing dismissal of Ron Paul's candidacy. The man who actually won the 2000 presidential election deserves a fair share of the blame for the predicament we find ourselves in today. Why? Well because Gore's craven surrender to the forces behind George W Bush dealt a mortal wound to our democracy. Prior to that infamous moment, most Americans were "silly" enough to believe that the candidate who got the most votes actually won the election.

At the point in time when he conceded the election to Bush, Gore still had plenty of options remaining to him. Instead, he meekly stood by and allowed the Supreme Court to install Bush as president. Gore had the legitimacy bestowed upon him by a half-million vote lead in the popular count. But, for reasons still unexplained, he unaccountably let the Republicans gain the moral high Ground in the disputed election. Anyone remember the signs that the very well-organized GOP Ground Troops displayed?

"SORE-LOSERMAN" they read, and that was the perception that took hold in the public mind. Bush supporters even went so far as to protest outside of Gore's official residence as vice president chanting "Get out of Cheney's house!" over and over. Actually, I did find that rather amusing at the time.

But, where were all of Gore's ground troops while this was going on? Nowhere to be found for the simple reason that Gore never granted permission for them to rally to his cause. The Bush people hired family retainer/attack dog James Baker to lead the fight. Gore countered with a man whose demeanor positively screamed "kick my ass all over the state of Florida", Warren Christopher.

Personally, I believe that Gore was in on the fix. He was never supposed to win that election.

But, he did.