"Kerry won!" Part II: Aided by MSM

So the MSM is trying to come to Kerry's rescue by "merely investigating" vote totals in OH and possibly FL. Full story here:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/11/11/101259.shtml

They're complaining that George Bush won some heavily Democratic counties in Florida. Do they have any proof of fraud? Nope. They're saying that there's no way a county with Democratic registrations as high as 70% could have gone to Bush. The only problem with that theory is that it has happened before. Ronald Reagan won that same support, as did Bush's father in 1988. As did Bush in 2000! So Bush won some heavily registered-Dem counties in 2000, and did it again in 2004. Last time, no questions. This time, in a more decisive win...well, you get it. So there's really no surprise there.

A few Congressional Democrats have written the General Accounting Office asking for an investigation. George Bush won the election fair and square, but just as in 2000, the left can't stand the result, so they'll question the process.

After all, no one in their right mind would vote for George W. Bush, would they?

Ann Coulter sums up the nutcase conspiracy theory peddled by Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC show that no one watches:

A quick glance at the Congressional Almanac indicates that all five counties in Olbermann's conspiracy theory are in the Florida Panhandle, where most people have been registered as Democrats since their grandfathers registered them to vote shortly after the Civil War. This is in contrast to Broward and Dade Counties, where the vast majority of voters entered their party registrations when they moved to Florida from New York a few years ago.

As if anticipating Olbermann's idiotic conspiracy theory two years ago when he wrote the most recent almanac, Michael Barone specifically notes that these Panhandle counties – though still majority Democratic in party registrations – have been voting for Republicans for president for many years. This would include the 2000 presidential election when the three voting districts at the centerpiece of Olbermann's conspiracy theory voted for Bush by 69 percent, 66 percent and 57 percent. The only way Barone could have made this any clearer to the "Countdown" host would have been to begin the chapter, "Dear Keith Olbermann ..."

There's no mystery, no scandal. These are what's known as "Southern Democrats," who have been voting Republican for a very, very, very long time. Most of them probably don't even realize they're registered as Democrats. These people are Democrats like Kevin Phillips is a Republican, like Ashlee Simpson is a singer.

The only scandal is that a purported news program would raise insinuations of vote fraud based on the party registration of Southern Democrats living in the Florida Panhandle – without anyone at the show checking the Congressional Almanac. (It's especially attractive to be promoting a theory based on a lack of basic information, in the self-righteous, smug manner of Keith Olbermann.)

No election in the United States can be discussed intelligently without reference to Michael Barone's Congressional Almanac. At any half-serious TV news station, the Congressional Almanac is as common as a phonebook.

But at MSNBC, Keith Olbermann can go on air with the major breaking story that five conservative Democratic Panhandle counties voted for Bush, without one person on the show: (1) consulting the Congressional Almanac, (2) looking at the results of the 2000 election, or (3) apparently ever having heard of "Southern Democrats." (They're all Republicans now!)