"The world's oldest republic has demonstrated the youthful vitality of its institutions and the ability and the necessity to come together ... after a hard-fought campaign. The clash of partisan political ideas does remain just that - to be quickly followed by a peaceful transfer of authority." The preceding statement was proclaimed by the former U.S. President Gerald Ford merely two days after the divisive, yet nonviolent outcome of the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, which had two unusual circumstances that made this presidential race extraordinary. This presidential election was the first one since 1888 that the outcome of the popular vote did not match the decision of the Electoral College. Moreover, the irony of this salient incident is that although, after the fact, America was abuzz with the results, the fact of the matter is that the 2000 election had the second lowest voter turnout since that of 1924.
Dick Gephardt, former U.S. House Majority Leader
Joe Lieberman, official photo.
Congressional portrait with U.S. flag in the backg...At a voter turnout of 50.1%, only a delicate majority were concerned enough with their future president to actually take the initiative to go to the polls and vote. Now, perhaps as a result of the substantial amount of attention directed at the last presidential election by the general public the 2004 presidential election has been under the spotlight, which is apparent from newspaper articles such as "Front-Loading Presidential Selection: A Bad Idea." Thus, it is clear that the public is scrutinizing some of the key issues of the most promising Democratic candidates because in this day and age there is a huge discrepancy between the issues and priorities of candidates within the same party.
At this point in the 2004 Presidential race there are clearly frontrunners that have emerged, but still the masses are uncertain that any of these front runners will be able...