Historical Footnote May 21, 2001February 19, 2017 Not to make a big deal out of it – some Republicans are programmed immediately to close their minds and open their mouths with focus-group-tested phrases at the mere mention of this (‘are you still whining?’ ‘get over it!’) – but Gore won Florida. Even without adjusting for the thousands of legal Florida voters who were prevented from voting – counting the votes of only those who did vote – Gore won. No one is suggesting Bush should resign, but neither does it make sense to consider this so trivial as to be unworthy of note. ‘Researchers examined all of the 111,261 overvote ballots,’ writes Larry Eichel in the Philadelphia Inquirer (this link should work until tomorrow). They found Gore’s name but not Bush’s on 71,548 of them and Bush’s but not Gore’s on 25,082.’ Gore won the popular vote nationwide and in Florida. Yet Bush is President. Does it matter? Well, take energy. We suddenly have an energy crisis. Into the fray rush oilmen Bush and Cheney. The Bush budget calls for: a 49.9% cut in hydropower research a 53.7 % cut in solar energy research a 48.2% cut in wind energy research It is truly a grand time to be an oilman or a defense contractor – or just plain rich. (“Under the tax cut plans now moving though Congress,” begins a story in Saturday’s New York Times business section, “the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans gain value over time while most of the breaks for everyone else lose value, according to both supporters and critics of these plans.”)