Letter: Gore was America’s real choice in 2000

Monday, March 19, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Regarding James J. Poupard's March 16 letter, "Imagine what could have been with Gore":

Didn't Al Gore win in 2000? I thought he won the popular vote, as well as the electoral vote in the 49 decided states, i.e., the states where there were opportunities for adequate recounts and no significant voting irregularities. In fact, I'm convinced that Gore would also have carried Florida - won the popular vote there, too - if the Florida Supreme Court's decision for a fair and complete recount of the votes in question had not been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But in one of the worst decisions in its 220-plus year history, by a vote of 5-4, strictly along party and ideological lines, the U.S. Supreme Court halted the Florida recount, with Bush ahead by a mere 450 votes, less than one-tenth of 1 percent, or 1 vote per 10,000.

So based on the "facts," I'd have to conclude that Al Gore, not George W. Bush, was America's choice for its 43rd president. Bush, however, was the man who took the oath of office, appropriately administered to him by Chief Justice Rehnquist, the deciding vote on the court! And the rest, as Mr. Poupard notes, is "imagine what if?"

Jeffrey M. Shear, North Las Vegas