LOSING bites. There is no politically correct euphemism for it, it simply means that one person is the winner, and the rest are losers.
Vice President Al Gore has lost the election, but by all standards of fairness, he is not a sore loser; he is a politician. It is in his blood to contest, argue and dispute everything until it becomes a scrambled mesh of paperwork.
He has the opportunity, however, to do something that very few politicians ever get to do in their lifetimes; he can restore respect to the word "politician." All he is to do is pick up a notepad and pen, and start writing his concession speech.
It is easy to see why Gore is having such a hard time accepting the inevitable. He has worked his entire life climbing a mountain, and he missed the summit by a handhold. He received more popular votes than his opponent, something that would have made him the winner in most other countries. The votes he lost in Florida were disputable, and there is obvious partisanship involved in the manner of the counts and recounts.
Most importantly, his margin of defeat is smaller than the statistical margin of error. In other words, no one, save God himself, will ever know who the real winner of the election was. Gore probably still will be muttering on his death bed, "what if?"
It obviously is not easy being a doorstep away from becoming the most powerful man in the world and instead, getting demoted to the average, out of work citizen.
But it is time for one of the two candidates to restore our faith that politicians actually do work for the country and its people, not themselves. If Texas Gov. George W. Bush is going to be the president, Gore should be the one to save the presidency.
The exhibition of American politics as the work of fat, high-priced lawyers and politicians has reached a new low these past two weeks. Ideology lost all meaning in a contest of power and self-interest. For example, former Secretary of State James Baker III, along with Bush, stated after Election Day that lawsuits would prolong the already marred election process.
The Bush campaign, perhaps to show how serious it was about what it said, subsequently filed suit in the federal court to stop hand recounts. Didn't Bush once remark in a debate that Washington needed less lawyers, and more honesty, less litigation, and more state power? Maybe that was a different Bush, a relative perhaps.
The elections, or lack thereof, have brought ridicule from all parts of the world as just another example of the American obsession with courtroom drama. The joke in Japan is that the the Japanese government is clamoring to send boxes of Viagara to America upon hearing that Americans can't have an "election." The founding principle of American democracy, the right to vote, is being battered with the never ending sprials of litigation. Americans are tired, and want closure.
So, out of this entire mess, why should Gore concede?
Despite the presence of compelling logic to study the process and votes amidst such uncertainty, in every recount his lawyers fought for in the courts, Bush kept his lead. The lead was slim, but Gore could never come out and say "Aha! I won and I told you so!" Gore knows that there is a good chance he might have won, but that the current evidence can not support his intuition. He can only calmly come on TV and ask for more time. Unfortunately, no one is willing to give him that time.
Gore himself accepted the decision of the Florida Supreme Court for a manual recount to be decided by Sunday. He made the mistake, however, of not arguing the allotted time for the recount. Thanksgiving weekend came and went, and before we could digest our turkey dinner, the Sunday night deadline had passed. Sunday night's official certification of the recounts: Bush is still the winner.
Even more importantly, Gore is losing the respect and patience of the American people. The most recent polls indicate that more Americans would accept Bush as the legitimate president over Gore, and an increasing number of Americans are losing faith in Gore's tactics to prolong the election. These numbers, surprisingly, also include Gore supporters.
No one will ever know who won Florida. Impossible to avoid human and statistical errors will always keep us guessing. Even if Gore were to come up with an extra 1,000 votes today and immediately win the election, he would only win by a margin smaller than the statistical margin of error. Bush would then whine about losing and then send his lawyers to beat up Gore's lawyers. The process would continue, and we would still have no leader.
The logical thing for Gore to do is fight in court. But the right thing to do is concede and restore the American faith in the political process and its participants. After two weeks of watching politicians shed their honor and ideologies for self-interest, Gore can only save the country by ending the exhibition.
Let's just hope that in the meantime, Bush doesn't blow up the country by trying to light his victory cigar.
(Faraz Rana's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily.)
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