How many people predicted Nov 2nd and were told they were being negative?

[genius]

On a realistic scale, it I didn't see how anyone could expect Kerry to come out ahead in the vote given that Bush had the ability to cheat and rig the vote virtually everywhere. I remember that when I posted warnings about this, I was being called negative. It was easy to hope that the optomists were correct but the hope didn't seem to be based on anything. I also posted polls and the majority seemed to agree in the polls that Bush would rig and steal. However, I did not see this discussed much in independent postings, probably because people didn't want to get hammered. Personally, I think it's better to discuss the possiblities upfront rather than being surprised. So, how many other realists who predicted the results are in du right now?

[flpoljunkie]

1. Only person in MSM who wrote about this coming catastrophe was Krugman

Yet, it wasn't enough. The Rethugs blocked Rush Holt's bill, as well as Bob Graham's Senate bill...now we know why.

[genius]

6. Most of the Democrats in the Senate didn't get behind Graham's bill

It was as if they were oblivious to what was going on.

[flpoljunkie]

17. You are absolutely correct... "HAVA Sponsors Urge Caution"

http://subscript.bna.com/SAMPLES/mpr.nsf/0/bf04e0200053376f85256e540002f04e?OpenDocument

HAVA Sponsors Urge Caution

Countering Clinton's and Graham's call for an immediate requirement of a paper trail for electronic voting systems were the lead sponsors of the nation's new election reform law, the Help American Vote Act (HAVA), which passed in 2002.

Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Reps. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) wrote to other members of Congress March 3, urging caution on calls to require a paper trail. They said any action should await guidance from the Election Assistance Commission and other review mechanisms set up by HAVA.

The lawmakers said mandating a voter-verified paper record would essentially take advanced election systems and "reduce them to little more than ballot printers." The approach could give rise to adverse unintended consequences, including forcing blind voters to go back to using ballots that provide neither privacy nor independence, "thereby subverting a hallmark of the HAVA legislation."

_____________________

But, stolen elections using these electronic voting systems are okey-dokey, eh?

[merh]

2. bunches!

Lots and lots.

[ramapo]

3. My wife and daughter

I was hopeful to the end. They were realistic.

[greenmutha]

4. I predicted it would be a landslide...

For Kerry!

(And I STILL think it was!)

[Merlot]

5. Me too!

But I also predicted that * would not give up power easily.

[RevCheesehead]

32. Me, too.

In fact, I thought the landslide would be so big, that there would be NO WAY Rove would be able to touch it.

I would not be a good Poker player.

[readmylips]

7. In my love for my country, I was hopeful Kerry would win...

When Kerry said, "I'll fight and I have 10 thousand lawyers ready to fight," I gave more money. Some where inside my soul, that smirking face of bush told he that he was rigging the elections. The more he talked about religious shit and demanded the names of all religious members in all Churches, I knew his game and play with religion/God and Faith Base money, voters would be in his pocket.

The elections were not about how great bush was/is, it was about born again religious power. bush sold the country and our souls to the religious nuts.

[jackster]

8. how much faith

do you put into the story that Karen Hughes sat Shrub down for "the talk" and - poof - voila - things turned around all of a sudden?

[whalerider55]

9. Not on DU

but I sure ragtimed a bunch of people who told me exactly what was going to happen.

man, is my face red.

whalerider55

[pixelthief]

10. Truemajority tried to warn us

Also gotta mention that truemajority.com ran an extensive campaign for verified voting. "The computer ate my vote", as it was known, received virtually no attention from democrats, activists, or the media.

They demonstrated in Tallahassee and I think roughly six people showed up.

[Mend]

11. We were picking Kerry's cabinet here on DU...

I was stunned that Kerry "lost"....the size of the crowds he and John Edwards drew in all areas of the country, winning the debates, the majority of the newspapers endorsing him, talk that the military was for him, very few * car stickers, F911, * low poll numbers. I didn't know of anyone who thought * had it. I was absolutely sure of victory.

[pixelthief]

12. Yeah, about the military vote...

STILL waiting to see some info on the military vote. Methinks that if they had went overwhelmingly for * then the MSM would be trumpeting it 24x7.

[NV Whino]

13. I predicted that Kerry would win unless...

vote fraud reared its ugly head in Ohio and Florida. I missed New Mexico.

[TrustingDog]

14. ever since I got to know good ole George since 2000...

and then when 911 happened and he got all his dreams come true... I knew he wasn't giving up the ship - no matter what, that asshole was going to stick to the throne.

But it was nice to get caught up in the good guy/bad guy game. I really did like Kerry toward 'the end'.

[lonestarnot]

19. 9-11 didn't just happen; it was part of the plan.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

15. My boyfriend did...

And I told him it was nonsense. I wish I had listened to him - I had an intuitive feeling that he would be right, but I also hoped he would be wrong. :(

[elizm]

16. I told DNC a year ago...

To not ask me for any more money until they did something about the voting machines because otherwise all of the money is a waste! I never got a reply, of course. And, yes, the people who know me heard it again and again...Until they were tired of it.

[lonestarnot]

18. Told my buddy at work this would be our only downfall. He skeptical

but he knew also.

[KaryninMiami]

20. As a Floridian who has known for years about the rigging...

I knew in my heart that there was a good chance they would do it again. But like many of us who were also aware of the possibility of them rigging the machines again, we worked tirelessly to get as many people out to vote as possible, thinking (hoping, praying, etc.) that if they did rig the machines, we'd have enough votes for Kerry to overcompensate for this. However, as soon as I saw the exit polls changing that night, I knew they had done it again. There was no question in my mind in fact, that they had stolen another election. Sadly it didn't matter how many got out to vote for Kerry-- and they did come out in droves-- it was rigged. Period.

My folding chairs and Move.On signs are still in my trunk by the way, as are the Kerry signs. Guess I'm still in denial on some level or not done mourning the loss of democracy.

[Jackpine Radical]

21. Here's the text of a letter I got published in my local paper

in late October:

Editor:
Lately I’ve heard a lot of local members of the Republican faithful starting to sound afraid of what might happen on November 2. A few polls have shown Kerry narrowing the gap and picking up speed, so some people are beginning to panic.

Frankly, I don't get it. Why is anybody even worried about how we're doing? A lot of the so-called "battleground states" aren't even in play, if you really know what's going on. Take Ohio, for example. Wally O'Dell (Diebold CEO) guaranteed to deliver the state into our hands regardless of the popular vote, with his magical touchscreen voting machines.

And Florida--good Heavens--Florida overcame the small nuisance of a Democratic majority last time, and they will do it again. Does anybody think Jeb can't deliver HIS state? We have the new and improved Felons list (baby, if your name is Tyrone Jackson you ain't votin' in FL), not to mention Diebold, ES&S & Sequoia machines all lined up to deliver the vote for us in the critical counties.

So chill, everyone. Like Lenin said, it isn't how the votes are cast that matters. It's how the votes are counted. And we have everything going for us.

(Jackpine Radical)

Is that prescient enough for you?

[Vektor]

30. Your local paper published that!?

Yay! That is a hoot. My right-wing rag paper would not have touched that with a ten-foot-pole. What area is this paper from?

[RevCheesehead]

33. Chippewa Falls? or Eau Claire?

I peeked at your profile. I lived in Eau Claire for 2 years, and LOVED the progressive nature of the city! But I don't know enough about Chippewa - isn't it more conservative?

[Jackpine Radical]

35. It was published in the Chippewa Herald.

I don't have the exact date handy & the paper isn't on line. They had previously published an equally outrageous piece of mine, as follows:


Why I’m Voting for President Bush

The President is a forthright man who not only knows what is good for America, but is willing to stand up, lie, cheat, steal, and send others to die to get it. He is a man who will keep our tax money out of the hands of the undeserving poor and ensure it goes into the coffers of our most valued citizens, the ownership class, where it belongs.

We need the war in Iraq in order to ensure the prosperity of loyal corporations like Halliburton. Only President Bush has the courage and vision necessary to prosecute this war to the end and then go on to Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan and even all of South America until at last we own the oilfields of the world.

Only President Bush has the wisdom to pursue a policy of lowering taxes for the most deserving while building a trillion-dollar national debt that will forever bind the natural servant class in fealty to their rightful masters. A major benefit that arises from transferring money directly from the public coffers into the accounts of the most deserving corporations is that it reduces the temptation to divert these funds into wasteful enterprises such as public education and health care.

Public education is worse than wasteful. It is genuinely counterproductive to educate people beyond the specific skills they need for employment. Education is notorious for turning its recipients into malcontents who become resentful of their lot in life and may even refuse to conduct themselves in accordance of the needs and wishes of their owners.

Likewise, health care is a wasteful expense when squandered on the useless eaters, with the sole exception that a certain number of particularly healthy specimens from among the worthless classes may be selected for organ donation to their betters, and maintained in good health until their time comes for harvesting.
(Jackpine Radical)

[uppityperson]

22. Me. n/t

[Imajika]

23. I thought it would be close...

On November 2nd I also believed Kerry would probably win, but I knew it would be extremely close. I warned people that Bush wasn't "toast", and that Bush wasn't "gone". I knew Jr. could win, but gave the edge to Kerry. The combined poll results seemed to indicate Bush was up 1-2%, but I believed it was trending Kerry's way. I do not believe Kerry lost through some vote fraud conspiracy. I do believe that I underestimated the Republican GOTV and locally driven voter registration effort, which appears to have been superior to our own GOTV program and somewhat better than left leaning 527 registration campaigns. Additionally, I largely discounted the "security Mom" as a media creation - but clearly Bush did do far better among women in 2004 than he did in 2000 and the "terror threat" probably does explain some of that. Lastly, I did not appreciate how many voters could actually be lured to the polls on the basis that Bush was a man of God. Rove appears to have sucked every bible thumper out of the woodwork and convinced them to vote.

Imajika

[McCamy Taylor]

24. I predicted it exactly as it happened, my husband can vouch for me.

The polls, the issues, the political climate were such that Bush was going down and Kerry was going to win by a narrow but decisive margin. However, Karl Rove has already proven that he LOVES to commit crimes to get his candidate elected, it is his modus operandum. Plus, there was the testing out of electronic vote fraud in Gerogia 2002, the widespread installment of paperless electronic voting machines machines this time, the Congressional squelching of the bill that would have required a paper trail and the media blackout on stories about the risks of paperless electronic voting despite the fact that California was taking steps against it and ordinarily as goes California so goes the country.

The only flaw in what I knew was the most likely Karl Rove plan was the exit polls. If the election was not close, then the exit polls would trip them up. On election morning, when I read that Blackwell had atempted to keep exit pollsters far away from the polls, I knew that Rove had forseen this, and that I was correct, the fix was in.

In retrospect, the back up plan was to keep the exit poll data away from the public. Rove didnt count upon people within the media or hackers or both leaking the polls to the public.

This was very easy to put together, and I am just an average Jane Q. Public who doesnt know anyone in Washington. Everyone in the press and in politics has to know exactly the same thing, and the fact that they are not admitting it means that they are a bunch of scared little pussies OR have sold their souls to the devil. Or both.


I DID NOT predict that the news media would hide exit poll results from the public. That one was a real shocker for me. They took such delight in covering Florida 2000, and they gave every appearance of being ready for another ratings festival this time. However, I saw the documentary "Weapons of Mass Distraction" in Amsterdam over Thanksgiving and realized that the owners of the networks had already sold their souls to Bush by hyping a war which they knew we did not need over WMD which did not exit because they wanted administration favors. I wonder if Kerry conceded because he couldnt get any of the news networks to release exit poll data to him and he despaired. "Exit polls? But you were never ahead in the exit polls, Sen Kerry. Who told you that?'

Our MSM totally sucks.

:scared:

Ted Turner, save us!

[EFerrari]

25. I did. I told MoveOn we would win but that they would try to steal it

[Amaryllis]

38. I emailed MoveOn many times about this but they seemed oblivious.

Sent them all kinds of info about e-voting fraud, websites, etc. but no response.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. I was concerned

I felt that Kerry would not win a cheat-proof majority.

[zann725]

27. I do remember one odd thing...

I volunteered for the campaign, and NO large Election Night parties were planned by the L.A. Democratic chapter. I thought this was odd. As a lot of people had volunteered time, and it would've been nice. And most people wanted to meet and celebrate and watch the returns together. But nothing (to my knowledge) by the DNC in a city this large.

Finally a Grass Roots group organized something in a remote beach community hotel, but to my knowledge, that was all.

Although most of us felt Kerry would win, the only explanation I could think of (as to no Election Night parties) was that "victory" was NOT going to be determined that night. Which as you recall was the consensus at that time...that it might take several days to find out. Who KNEW of the debacle to come?!

[madison2000]

28. The problem with living in Madison WI is that it feels like the world is

made up of liberals and its not. 80,000 people came to the Kerry rally here on the Thursday before the election. I only know 3 people who voted for Bush-Cheney. I believed Kerry would win and I campaigned for him; I knew it would be close. I had no less than 8 messages on my answering machine Nov.2 reminding me to vote for Kerry. (I voted absentee 2 weeks early.) At 7:40 pm on Nov.2 there was a knock on my door - someone reminding me there was still time to vote. At 9:00 pm I had a call from the volunteer center to come downtown to the Kerry victory party... and I decided to stay home and keep watching television. Until that evening I really thought Kerry would win. I did not think about the possibilty of fraud or cheating.

I have a terrific congressperson (Tammy Baldwin) and a senator that is loved by Dems and Reps (Russ Feingold). I am surrounded by people who play fair and believe in the democratic process and fight for the right things- including raising the minimum wage in this city and getting a universal health care plan for our state. I wish the whole world were Madison Wisconsin, but clearly its not.

[Vektor]

29. I did, and here's why.

I had no doubt Kerry COULD win in a fair election, but I knew the Rethugs would steal it again. What reinforced this for me?
The following:

1.) Past history -they had done it before.

2.) Shrub's blatant over confidence that there was no chance Kerry could win. Bush is the most hated President ever. Anything he touched turned to shit. He had only a record of failure to run on, BUT, any and every time he was asked in a debate or news conference about "the possibility of a Kerry win" he'd get that beady eyed secretive leer, and say, without hesitation, "It ain't gonna happen." I knew right then he had it in the bag already. He never sweated it for a second, because he KNEW.

3.) Bush didn't even try. (On the campaign trail, that is...) On the subject of loyalty oaths and inclusion of only his "base":
Those willing to sign their lives away just to hear him speak were the only ones allowed into his rallies. No other citizens were allowed to attend, despite the fact that he is our President. (And I use the term loosely.) With popularity ratings as low as his, he NEEDED to be as open as possible, and try to rope in as many as he could to his rallies to try to win them over. He DID NOT DO THIS. In fact, he deliberately kept out anyone except the most rabidly faithful. This is not the behavior of a man wanting to win fans - it is the behavior of a man with a big, dirty secret who knows he doesn't need to do shit, and wants to secretly communicate that to his flock. The only way Bush could have won AT ALL would have been to have publicly reached out and tried his best to win over some of the undecided and Left leaning masses - in a fair election, that was as close as this one, he would have needed those votes to win. He never lifted a finger to try to convince undecideds to come to his rallies. He didn't need to. He knew all along he didn't need to speak to one single Democrat during the campaign and he didn't. The voting public was not deciding who won. The machines were. And Bush never doubted his "victory" was coming for one bloody second. Remember his last second "press conference" on election night, when the polls were coming to a close? Remember Bush looking at the camera and saying "Don't worry, we ARE going to win, we will win."

Hmmm.

[IStriker]

31. I kept seeing polls before the election that even among Democrats...

and by a big margin Bush was expected to be re-elected. None of the polls said due to vote fraud, just that the average person no matter what party he belonged to expected Bush to win. Surprise! Surprise! He won. I am unconvinced that the average person who responded to this poll expected vote fraud. They just expected Bush to win and he did.

[delphine]

34. I predicted this on the official Kerry blog.

I was roundly attacked as being negative, paranoid, etc. In fact I was accused of undermining the campaign with my negativity. One of the first bloggers even comes here sometimes and responds to my posts with venom.

Unfortunately I was right. One of the bloggers even apologized to me when we met on another blog.

I didn't want to be right.

I KNEW Kerry would win. But I was equally sure they'd rig it for bush.

All the other bloggers could do was post "LANDSLIDE! LANDSLIDE!"

[NVMojo]

36. I told people we shouldn't be so naive as to think these jerks

were going to let go of our White House, that they were going to keep their grip on it in spite of the election process ...Several people nailed me for being negative ....

[zeemike]

37. I predicted it when Clark entered the primaries

And it had nothing to do with Clark himself, but I realized that it was all about Dean, and his strong stand on principles that scared the hell out of the bushies and the DLC
Dean would not have conceded and may have used the money for election protection to actually point out the fraud, which would have been bad for the Rethugs.
And when Kerry got the nomination I mentioned the fact that I thought it was because he would concede quickly and not cause a fuss if there was fraud.
I do wish I was full of shit and had it all wrong, but sadly I was right.