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Home Front: Politix
U.S. Can't Do What Botswana Can: Deliver Vote Results Same Day
2004-11-03
I couldn't resist this as an example of how desperate the MSM is for 'good news'. BTW Botswana is very well run by subsaharan African standards.
The U.S. is unable to do what countries like Botswana, a southern African nation of 1.6 million people, are capable of doing: delivering election results within a day.
That could be because we're a nation of 280,000,000 people. Just a thought...
Americans and the rest of us will be surprised that a country that sent a man to the moon 30 years ago can't give us the results of an election on the same day,'' said Klas Eklund, chief economist at SEB AB, the third-biggest Nordic bank by assets in Stockholm and a former adviser to the Swedish government.
Its almost a definition of MSM desperation that they have to use a quote from a tier 2 scandinivian banker get a positive spin on the US election - hilarious!
On Oct. 30, the ruling party in Botswana was reelected, winning 44 out of 57 parliamentary seats in a country where average income is less than 10 percent of the U.S. The opposition accepted the results that evening.
I think they inadvertantly highlighted the problem here.
Posted by:phil_b

#6  And two political parties. That makes a diffo...
Posted by: Fred   2004-11-03 3:23:43 PM  

#5  That could be because we're a nation of 280,000,000 people.

And -- what? -- five time zones? That might be a factor as well.
Posted by: Angie Schultz   2004-11-03 12:18:19 PM  

#4  That could be because we're a nation of 280,000,000 people. Just a thought

And 279,000,001 lawyers. That also might have something to do with it.
Posted by: Seafarious   2004-11-03 10:56:56 AM  

#3  Article: the ruling party in Botswana was reelected, winning 44 out of 57 parliamentary seats

It staggers the mind how stupid (and ideologically-blinkered) reporters are. 44 out of 57 parliamentary seats is a landslide - it means the ruling party took almost 80% of the seats. GWB has not won 80% of the electoral votes. The number is more like 50%. This is why there is contention here.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2004-11-03 9:50:47 AM  

#2  Of course if the loser of our election would face reality it would have been over in under 24 hours.
Posted by: AzCat   2004-11-03 9:13:05 AM  

#1  Not to mention a parliamentary system is somewhat different than the winner-take-all system the US has. Each district worries about itself, not as much about the national election.

Oh, and then there is the ability for a US President to actually do something for good or ill while the Botswana Prime Minister is pretty much stuck hoping for foreign aid and good crops.
Posted by: RJ Schwarz   2004-11-03 8:51:36 AM  

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