Earth to Kerry: Concede!
Hanging on to the idea that the Ohio provisional and absentee ballots may tip the election back in his favour, John Kerry and his campaign have refused to concede defeat. Kerry is doing his country and democracy no favours if he insists on waiting until all the ballots are counted, which will take another eleven days.
With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Kerry trailed President Bush in Ohio by about 125,000 votes out of more than 5.2 million cast. But in a statement early Wednesday, Kerry campaign chief Mary Beth Cahill said, "The vote count in Ohio has not been completed."
"There are more than 250,000 remaining votes to be counted," Cahill said. "We believe when they are, John Kerry will win Ohio."
Of course she believes no such thing. I can't believe she is that stupid.
In light of the 2000 election, it can maybe be understood that Kerry and Edwards now postpone the inevitable. However, I think it's disingenious for CNN and CBS News to pretend Ohio is still "too close to call." In fact, it is just a very unlikely theoretically possibility that the uncounted ballots would break so decisively with the already counted votes. So remarkable would it be, in fact, that it would be a good reason to suspect fraud if they were.
Look at the result for Ohio. Bush has won 51% against 49% of the counted votes, and is 136,221 votes ahead. Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell estimates the number of uncounted ballots to be around 175,000. Even if we assume that all of them are valid (which is unreasonable), Kerry would have to win 78% of these votes to win.
Unlike four years ago, President Bush has also won the US popular vote decisively, 51% to 48%, by 3.5 million votes.
It would be most unfortunate if Kerry forces the nation and the world to wait another eleven days before he concedes defeat. Let it be over sometime today, please.
Update: John Kerry concedes!
President Bush was to deliver a victory statement at 3 p.m. ET, Bush aides said. Kerry was expected to make a concession speech at 1 p.m. ET at Faneuil Hall in Boston, Massachusetts.
My respect for John Kerry just went up many notches. He gave the election his best shot, won the three debates with good performances, he won the support from almost half of the American people, and will hopefully serve his country well in the future. But not as president.
2:24:28 PM 
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