Political Returns

As the U.S. presidential election entered its final sprint, the two parties' representatives, Al Gore and George W. Bush, performed about evenly in the televised debates;

One was exceptionally intelligent but lacked a sense of humor, while the other was approachable yet often answered questions beside the point.

Overall, though, Al Gore's debating ability was certainly beyond George W. Bush's. Fortunately, those were not the qualities required of an American President!

Democrat Al Gore was highly confident in his core support base of California, New York, and the New England states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Jersey;

Meanwhile, Republican George W. Bush had the votes of the Southern states—apart from Tennessee and Arkansas—as well as most of the Midwest.

Tennessee was Democrat Al Gore's home turf, while Arkansas was Clinton's home state. They would definitely support the Democratic Party!

Thus, both sides had now designated the swing states as their main battlegrounds: Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, West Virginia, Florida, and so on.

Florida in particular should have been Republican territory, since its governor was George W. Bush's younger brother, Jeb Bush;

But after Al Gore appointed Jewish Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, the situation in Florida changed. Florida's Jewish and elderly voters began throwing their support behind Al Gore, making the Bush team nervous.

Major states like Florida, New York, and California had far more electoral votes than the smaller states. After all, winning the popular vote did not make one the American President; one had to win the electoral vote!

With Florida in danger, the Bush team immediately increased its advertising spending there. At the same time, it launched a major offensive in the Southern states of Tennessee and Arkansas, attempting to steal the Democrats' home turf.

At Angel Theater in