Bush the Legitimate

David Horowitz has a nice article over at CBSNEWs by way of the NRO basically telling Alan Keyes and all of the other right wing nutters to shut the fuck up about the Obama birth certificate issue. I couldn't agree more! Just what in the world are these people trying to accomplish?

Where I take issue with Mr. Horowitz this statement:

This tempest over whether Obama, the child of an American citizen, was born
on American soil is tantamount to the Democrats’ seditious claim that Bush
“stole” the election in Florida and hence was not the legitimate president.
This
delusion helped to create the Democrats’ Bush derangement syndrome and
encouraged Democratic leaders to lie about the origins of the Iraq war, and
regard it as illegitimate as Bush himself. It became “Bush’s War” rather
than an
American War - with destructive consequences for our troops and our
cause.

First Mr. Horowitz complains that the Supreme Court invalidating the 64 million (actually 67) voters that put Obama in office would be tantamount to shredding our constitution and our rule of law. I wonder if Mr. Horowitz felt the same way about the SCOTUS invalidating all those votes for Al Gore in 2000? It could be that Mr. Horowitz just feel that the SCOTUS would be in the mood for a make up call, ala college basketball, and give this to the Dems one way or the other.

That really isn't the most important thing though. I've heard this arguement from Horowitz now and Rove earlier this week that it wasn't fair that Bush wasn't treated as a legitimate President when he came to Washington. The problem is ofcourse that he wasn't a legitimately elected President. Whether you believe that George W. Bush actually won the vote count in Florida in 2000 as attested by the subsequent private recounts, George W. Bush wasn't the man that the American people wanted as President in 2000.

This isn't only because we have an outdated way of selecting a President whereas one vote in Wyoming counts the same in the final tally as four votes in Florida. It goes beyond that. With problems like the butterfly ballot in Florida where thousands of people became confused into voting for Pat Buchannan it is clear that the voters intended to elect Gore, even if the results of the process were different.

The real meat of this is that even George W. Bush and the Republican Party didn't believe that George W. Bush had won the election. All of the efforts on behalf of Bush by Republicans were explicitly aimed at preventing a recount. They were not interested in a fair recount. They were not interested in a long or short recount process. They simply wanted the counting ended at any costs. Remember the Republicans in the Florida legislature considering changing the laws to simply had Florida's electors to Bush?

Bush was seen as an illigitimate President because he acted like an illigitimate President. A man of honor, having won the election the way he did might have come to Washington with an Obamaesque platform and agenda. A man of courage would have come to Washington and said look, understand that we have just gone through a terribly devisive election, and I understand that, and being a uniter and not a divider I'm going to forge a coalition between the parties to help bring America back together.

None of this is what Bush did however. What Bush did, on the advice of Rove and Cheney was to demand acceptance and legitimacy like a spoiled and petulant child. That same arrogance and condescension towards the opposition has been the hallmark of Bush's 8 years in office. It has defined him and destroyed him.