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...before he ruins what's left of his career. The election was decided by midnight, but I could see waiting until this morning to do a concession speech (and just in case there is a major error discovered). But now its mid-morning and the Kerry camp has said little. What is he trying to accomplish?
Basically, Kerry has 3 options:
1. Concede and be dignified in defeat (not to mention, preserve the integrity of the electoral process).
2. Challenge Ohio - a difficult (impossible) task considering the margin is 140,000 votes (a lot more than Bush's ~1,000 vote margin in Florida in 2000).
3. Challenge several smaller states. The other states some people haven't called yet are New Mexico and Iowa. They look like they are going to go for Bush. Throw in Nevada and if Kerry challenged all 3 and won all 3, he'd win the election.
By not conceding, Kerry is being a sore loser and makes himself look bad. If he takes it further and challenges the election, he'll set a dangerous precedent. Gore had a legitimate basis for a challenge in 2000 - a 1,000 vote margin out of 5 million or so voters is .02%: a statistically insignificant margin. By challenging the outcome when he lost by a full 3 percent (140,000 out of 5.4 million votes) in Ohio, he'd be challenging not just the particulars of partially-punched paper ballots, but the democratic process itself. What separates western democracies from everyone else is a peaceful and orderly election process: Losers of elections accept it and step aside. If he doesn't concede soon, he'll be spitting on that process.
Basically, Kerry has 3 options:
1. Concede and be dignified in defeat (not to mention, preserve the integrity of the electoral process).
2. Challenge Ohio - a difficult (impossible) task considering the margin is 140,000 votes (a lot more than Bush's ~1,000 vote margin in Florida in 2000).
3. Challenge several smaller states. The other states some people haven't called yet are New Mexico and Iowa. They look like they are going to go for Bush. Throw in Nevada and if Kerry challenged all 3 and won all 3, he'd win the election.
By not conceding, Kerry is being a sore loser and makes himself look bad. If he takes it further and challenges the election, he'll set a dangerous precedent. Gore had a legitimate basis for a challenge in 2000 - a 1,000 vote margin out of 5 million or so voters is .02%: a statistically insignificant margin. By challenging the outcome when he lost by a full 3 percent (140,000 out of 5.4 million votes) in Ohio, he'd be challenging not just the particulars of partially-punched paper ballots, but the democratic process itself. What separates western democracies from everyone else is a peaceful and orderly election process: Losers of elections accept it and step aside. If he doesn't concede soon, he'll be spitting on that process.