Even if Bush did physically pick up the phone and call his cousin at Fox News, I don't see how that has any influence or bearing on the actual electoral delegates being won. He called some guy on the news. This guy on the news allegedly says "Bush Won" and that's supposed to matter in what way?
Meanwhile, I do a quick google and find these...
Quote:
The Associated Press declares Vice President Al Gore the victor in Florida, based on Voter News Service projections from exit polls. The major TV networks call Florida for Gore between 7:50 and 8:00pm.
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/INFORMAT ... meline.phpQuote:
At approximately 7:50 p.m. EST on election day, 10 minutes before the polls closed in the largely Republican Florida panhandle, which is in the Central time zone, some television news networks declared that Gore had carried Florida's 25 electoral votes. They based this prediction substantially on exit polls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta ... da_recountQuote:
NBC had been first to declare a winner in Florida on Tuesday, saying Al Gore won at 7:50 p.m EST. Its rivals quickly followed suit, basing their information largely on polling data provided by Voter News Service, a consortium created by The Associated Press, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/ap ... 22_000.htmThat last link has something to say about Fox News calling Bush the victor (hours after they all said Gore was the winner and redacted that declaration)...
Quote:
At 2:16 a.m., Fox News Channel declared Bush the winner in Florida. Within four minutes, NBC, CBS, CNN and ABC did the same. The AP said the race was still too close to name a winner.
Fox made the call based on its analysis of the vote count – it believed Bush's lead was so large there was no way Gore could overcome it given what experts knew about ballots left uncounted, said John Moody, Fox News Channel's vice president of news and editorial quality.
He said Fox did not make its call based on any advice from VNS. In fact, because of the earlier mistake on Gore, "we were all aware that their model was not perfect," he said.
So, that day everyone says Gore won first... but you have to cry about Fox News. Then, everyone changes their mind and says Bush won second... But you still have to cry about Fox News. When it's all said and done, Bush actually wins... and you're still crying about Fox News. Care to show us where the mean, Mr. Fox News touched you?