Tampabay: Bad calls, fumbles no excuse for final score

First: There is no doubt, zero, that some of those votes for Pat Buchanan down in Palm Beach County were intended for Al Gore. Even Buchanan agrees that is true.

Second: There is no doubt, zero, that the Palm Beach ballot was confusing. Look at the clear proof: More than 19,000 voters were disqualified because they voted for more than one presidential candidate.

Third: You can make a good case that the Palm Beach ballot was illegal in the first place. State law says the candidates must be listed "in order" of the party's finish in the last governor's race. They weren't.

And to all three points, I say: So what? Tough luck.

What, exactly, are we supposed to do now? Hold a new election in Palm Beach County? There is no provision in our law or Constitution for doing that. A local judge tried to order such a thing in Miami a couple of years back, but the appeals court shot him down.

This is not weekend golf. You don't get a mulligan. There are no do-overs. You don't get to just keep holding elections until your side wins.

Democrats say, but that is so unfair! If the Palm Beach ballot had been printed differently, we would have gotten more votes. Gore might have won. Gore campaign manager William Daley on Thursday called it "an injustice unparalleled in our history."

Unparalleled in our history! Wow.

I kinda think the forced slavery of hundreds of millions of human beings over several centuries might rank as "an injustice unparalleled in our history." That whole Holocaust thing has to figure in there somewhere, too.

"My side not winning an election" would be somewhat lower on my list of injustices. But maybe that's just me.

Let's agree that yes, Gore would have gotten more votes if the ballot had been printed differently.

So what? The Democratic elections supervisor, elected by the people, chose to do it that way. She published her ballot in advance for the world to see. Now that people don't like the result, the protests begin.

Do you think the Republicans can't come up with a similar claim somewhere in the state? Do you think they are just hanging around, waiting for the Democrats to win? Do you think they will agree, hey, let's just keep doing recounts in Democratic counties until Gore gets a majority?

Let's see, Gore barely won Iowa -- surely we can find some hog farmers to testify that they didn't get to vote. Gore barely won Wisconsin, too -- better ship a bunch of lawyers up there and find some ballot boxes hidden in the cheese bin. How about New Mexico?

Let's fight everywhere. Let's sue. Let's drag the whole thing out in court for as long as possible, like a child-custody dispute, except more bitter.

(Isn't this a wonderful argument against direct election of the president? Can you imagine having to recount all 100-million ballots in a close race?)

The recount that was conducted Wednesday and Thursday in Florida was a legitimate, proper precaution provided for in our law. The law even allows the manual recount requested by the Gore campaign in certain counties (although the Republicans can do the same thing.)

After that, they still have to count the overseas absentee ballots.

But after that ...

After that, somebody is going to have more votes. And that will be the time for the loser, whoever he is, to establish himself forever as a graceful patriot by stepping aside.

Do you know what a touchdown is in football?

The answer is not when the football reaches the end zone.

The answer is, when the referee raises his arms in the air. No arms in the air -- no touchdown.

If the game was so close that you had to blame the referee, then you shoulda scored more points anyway.

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