Salvanto was not an outlier.
Even the media consortium that tried -- after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the ensuing spike in presidential approval ratings -- to suggest a scenario under which Bush might have won produced more scenarios under which Gore would have won.
Media outlets that looked beyond the partisan spin to the reality of what the ballots revealed acknowledges as much.
As The Associated Press noted, "Under any standard that tabulated all disputed ballots statewide, however, Gore erased Bush's advantage and emerged with a tiny lead that ranged from 42 to 171 votes."
The Washington Post was even more blunt, stating that, "If there had been some way last fall to recount every vote -- undervotes and overvotes alike, in all 67 Florida counties -- former vice president Al Gore would be the White House."
The Palm Beach Post, which conducted its own review of the ballots and also participated in a review by a consortium of media outlets, concluded: "Uncounted ballots and voter confusion cost Gore the election."
Actually, that's not quite right.
The Supreme Court's blocking of the full and consistent recount that could have sorted through the confusion cost Al Gore an election. But the consequences were far greater for the republic, which lost a decade of its promise and possibility to the excesses and abuses of George Bush's illegitimate presidency.
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