Posted by sawyer on November 06, 2008 at 22:42:26
In Reply to: Re: Losing graciously posted by CB on November 05, 2008 at 22:04:44:
I'm not saying that there haven't been Republican sore losers in other elections. It just so happened that I was comparing McCain's particularly gracious concession speech, as well as his general attitude, with of that of his most recent predecessors. I have often felt that after Clinton was elected with 43% of the popular vote that Republicans carried a bitterness throughout his presidency that was not beneficial to the country. Likewise, Gore and his advisers set a negative tone after the Supreme Court decision in the Florida recount case that was further polarizing and had destructive repercussions on this country. Sure, Gore was justified in asking for a recount; however, when he insisted that it be a hand recount, other issues came into play. But Gore, along with Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton, who both compared the Supreme Court decision to Dred Scott, only sought to fester their wounds instead of healing them.
I don't think that Kerry was equally as negative in his tone after losing to Bush in 2004, but there was already so much negativity bubbling just below the surface that Democrats were more intent on resurrecting sentiments from the 2000 election. Gore and his entourage bear some responsibility for the barrage of acid comments and caustic political jokes that rose from the Democrats during the Bush era and infected the nation.
I'm not sure how often you watched FOX during the Primaries but they often came to Hillary's defense when it became apparent that she was not getting equal treatment in her run against Obama. Yes, there were conservative political pundits that were critical of Palin. Maybe liberal pundits are much too terrified of Hillary and Bill to speak so freely.
According to the Black Panthers, they were merely "guarding" some precincts in Philadelphia. An independent observer videoed two Black Panthers, one of which was holding a nightstick, in front of one of the voting precincts. When FOX news arrived, they were still there. There were claims by voters of intimidation and one Panther was alleged to have yelled out that white supremacy was coming to an end.