Misanthrope's Corner.(2000 presidential election)(Brief Article)(Column)

The beauty of coming out for the repeal of the Nineteenth Amendment is that I am now at liberty to say "I have a feeling something is going to happen" without worrying about compromising my feminist credentials.

There's a lot to be said for casting off the shackles of logic and reveling in the freedom of female intuition. When men do it they call it "listening to your gut," which allows them to feel tough and realistic as they work in mysterious ways, but women have no compunctions about letting the psychic vibes rock on without restraint, so I'll follow suit.

I waited until after the Inauguration to write this to see if it would shake me out of my mood, to no avail. My sense that the Bush presidency is star-crossed did not budge.

I've had it since election night, when the first hints that something was wrong emerged as though from a script crafted by a master dramatist who has foreshadowing down to a science. Why wouldn't Gore get out of his car? What was making Bush late for his victory rally? And then there was that bleak autumnal rain that began falling in Austin after we learned what had happened. The deserted plaza littered with soggy abandoned signs was nothing less than film noir.

Florida provided just enough comic relief to heighten the tension. As Gore, already established as an odd duck, moved closer to obsession, we had nightly debates about what he would "do" if he lost-"do" being a euphemism for going insane or committing suicide. And if it happened, what of his enraged "base," who gave him 93 percent of their vote? What would they "do"? Nobody spelled that out either, but it was taken to mean what it usually means.

After the Supreme Court stopped the Florida recounts and W. won the Electoral College, I started a count of my own to see how many times the words "Gore won the popular vote" would be spoken and written. I lasted all of two days before it became clear that I couldn't keep up without a full-time staff of elves.

Letters to the editor, talk radio, the-man-in-the-street, and political shout-show regulars all pounded it home. "Gore won the popular vote by 500,000" was given in thousands at first, until the bigger-sounding "half a million" took hold. Then it was reversed to "Bush lost the popular vote by half a million." Liberals questioned his "legitimacy," nicknamed him "President-select," coined "Hail to the Thief," and vowed never to accept him as "their" president.