Who Should Concede? “Politicians and pundits are eager for Vice President Gore to quickly

concede the presidential election to Gov. Bush and bring closure to

Election 2000.

A key argument is that Republican candidates who came close in the past —

especially Richard Nixon in 1960 and Gerald Ford in 1976 — gracefully

accepted defeat for the “good of the country” and Gore, a Democrat, now

should do the same.

Though this argument is gaining momentum, it is based on bogus history.

The real history is that Republicans since Nixon have played extraordinary

hardball and have only conceded when they were faced with clear defeat in

the popular vote. Ford was behind by 1.7 million ballots in 1976.

Indeed, it has been the Democrats who have routinely turned the other

cheek and kept quiet when they discovered evidence of GOP dirty tricks

aimed at rigging the outcome of presidential elections. These cases go

back to Nixon’s runs in 1960 and 1968 and are as recent as the 1992

match-up between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.” Consortiumnews