... doesn't mean very much at all, and I don't see why we should keep flogging it.

It doesn't matter how many square miles of territory Bush carried. We vote by population, not by acreage. No matter what that map may look like, Kerry took 48% of the vote, and that's what's important. That's a pretty big margin considering the times we live in, but it's still almost fifty-fifty. I think it's unnecessarily insulting to pretend that almost half the public doesn't exist by showing a map that misrepresents the actual division in the country by showing so much red.

[Did you just say something was "unnecessarily insulting"? -- ed. I guess I did. IS THIS SARCASTIC? I DON'T GET IT. -- ed. Trying to be more respectable, for both advertisers, and so that Instapundit will link me. So you're selling out? -- ed. I've been dying to; I see this as my big chance.]

Bush won, and by a fair margin, but that map has nothing to do with anything. I think a lot of us -- including me -- seized upon the visual power of that map (deceptive though it was) after the hotly disputed 2000 election, because we were thrashing about for anything to rebut the fact that Bush had lost the popular vote by a whisker.

But we don't need that crutch any more. Our boy won by 3.6 million or so votes. A football team doesn't have to point to a statistic about how many yards its racked up if its record is a winning one. And ours is, quite undeniably, a winning won. We won the political Super Bowl.

Let the other side carp about yards per carry and turnover differentials. We won the only stat that matters.

Update: The Value of "Respectablity": Having just called "bullshit" on a conservative-friendly prop, I can now call "complete and total bullshit" on this lefty prop -- purpotedly a chart of state-by-state average IQ's, demonstrating, if you had any doubt, that Kerry won all the "smart states."

I doubt that this is accurate -- there are no citations for it whatsoever, a pretty low-IQ move when introducing such a tendentious little prop -- but even if it is, so what? We don't vote according to acreage, and we also don't give extra votes for those who have slightly-above-average IQ's.

If we did, I could have carried New York all by my lonesome. [No you couldn't. You're a moron. -- ed. That's enough of you.]

Let's both sides agree on two things:

Kerry won 48% of the vote.

Bush won 51.5% of the vote.

All the props and charts and pie graphs and, who knows, rubber chicken graphs* in the world are not going to change those two key facts.

Bush won the popular vote. Bush won the electoral vote.

And that's how we keep score, Bubby!**

* Where?

** Where?

Thanks to a poster who I'm not sure if I can name. He knows who he is.

Posted by: Ace at 11:50 AM | Comments (56)
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It's such no-brainer and perfect fit that I imagine it won't happen.

Update: It also occurs to me that Bush is quite determined to, if not necessarily make Jeb Bush his presidential heir, then at least to make sure he's not created any hurdles for Jeb Bush's inevitable run for the Presidency.

And installing Rudy Guiliani as AG would, of course, make him even more prominent than he is at the moment.

I don't like this aspect of Bush's; I undertand familial loyalty and all, but at some point you have to put your top men in your top jobs. Yes, I guess he did install Tom Ridge in a high-profile position, but then, Tom Ridge is pro-choice, and not reall a threat to grab the top slot in the 2008 slate.

And, yes, Rudy is pro-choice too; but I think he actually has the standing to actually have a chance of winning the nomination despite this. He would have to tack his position back quite a bit, and it wouldn't be easy, but I think Guiliani actually does have a small but real chance of being a moderately pro-choice Republican candidate for President. I don't think Ridge does.

Posted by: Ace at 10:55 AM | Comments (28)
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Good stuff:

In the biggest fight of his charmed life, John Kerry swung between bewilderment and anger when things didn't go his way on the campaign trial.

"I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot," the Massachusetts Democrat sighed to a staffer when President Bush's poll numbers surged in April.

You will, no doubt, recall the Saturday Night Live debate parody between Bush the Elder and Dukakis, in which Jon Lovitz, as Dukakis, remarks: "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy."

They live in a bubble. They have trouble believing that the bubble is not infinite in size, embracing the entire US, if not the universe.

Awesome article. More quotes from the KerrySpot.

Update: You Couldn't Possibly Link This to an Attack on the MSM, Could You? Well, it didn't occur to me, but it occurred to AndrewF:

Of course, fucking newsweek reports news it obviously has had for a long, long time (especially the McCain stuff) after the election, when it can't show what an ass Kerry is to potential voters.

And the MSM probably doesn't realize how bad what they just did is, or how bad it makes them look. Imagine it was BUSH saying the things Kerry said. It would have been page one, above the fold, for months.

There can be little doubt that this is 100% true.

Posted by: Ace at 10:35 AM | Comments (5)
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Well, the first brave advertiser is now supporting Ace of Spades HQ. Be a pal and give him a click.

I can almost feel that crazy blog-money starting to roll in.

Posted by: Ace at 10:21 AM | Comments (16)
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Powerline Blog indulges a reader's conspiracy theory, and then knocks it down to some extent.

Here's what I have heard and what I think.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:22 AM | Comments (9)
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With 78% of the vote, which is kinda good.

Thanks to NickS.

Posted by: Ace at 08:46 AM | Comments (1)
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I get some questions about these, so I might as well answer them for everyone.

FAQ: Where's Allah?

Allah's a generous patron of this blog, and we do exchange emails periodically, but he's even more guarded about his personal life than I am. I know less about Allah than I do about Ricky "Rick" Schroeder.

Sorry. I know a lot of you are fans of Allah (as I am, of course), but I just have no idea why he takes breaks from time to time, or when he might be back.

FAQ: You're Really Hoke Malokey, Aren't You?

I was suprised that at least one reader thinks that Hoke is a character. He's not. He's an actual dude, whose name/political bona fides I'm not allowed to reveal.

So, in case you were suspicious: No, I wasn't using the "Hoke" character to express my own doubts about Bush's electoral prospects. I had doubts, of course, but not nearly as strong as Hoke's. Hoke, as I said, has always been a tad pessimistic about every election.

He wants Republicans to win. He's just never very confident they will.

Hoke, by the way, may be posting here this weekend, and he's prepared to eat a certain amount of crow for his pessimistic predictions. But try not to be too hard on him.

This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who.

Posted by: Ace at 08:34 AM | Comments (15)
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Never sure what to believe as to news out of Iran, but, like Dan Rather, I want this story to be true, so I'm running with it.

The White House ordered me to run the story-- they use me for "any number of purposes," some of which do not involve my dressing up as a Sexy Cabana Boy and delivering appletinis to Andy Card.

Posted by: Ace at 08:16 AM | Comments (3)
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Well, there are "conflicting reports" as to whether Arafat has died or not.

A report says he's clinically dead.

French doctors deny that and say he's alive.

Sounds to me like both things can be true, in a way.

Posted by: Ace at 08:12 AM | Comments (10)
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Thanks to Greg S.

Posted by: Ace at 08:00 AM | Comments (3)
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