Should Gore have fought for Florida, a la Ukraine?

[J. J.]

It's important to remember that Bush was strongly opposed to a full statewide manual count. Republicans were arguing that it would be too expensive and too arbitrary. Ultimately the Supreme Court ruled against a full statewide manual count, IIRC.

I definitely agree that there should have been one, but it's wrong to put all the blame on Gore. Both sides were willing to do whatever it took to win at that point. That doesn't excuse anyone's behavior or make it right, but it's the facts and the reality of the way politics works.

Gore didn't ask for a statewide recount, at least at the beginning.  He ask for recounts in areas he thought he would do well in, but it turned out that he lost votes in those.  I suspect that his real intent, later was to delay the count and say, "Well, Florida waited too long to cast its votes, so I win."

[J. J.]

The mistake Gore made was challenging results and asking for hand recounts in only 4 counties, all of which were favorable to him. 

If instead, he would have asked for an entire state-wide hand recount, Bush would have had to go along with that, since to appear otherwise would have been politically as well as practically foolish.

Best analysis yet!

Just for the record, I would have supported a statewide recount initially.  You'll note that I did in Ohio in 2004.

Gore made a blunder in not asking to "count all the votes" in beginning.