Looking Back at 2000

In the midst of the controversy surrounding the 2004 election results, this might be a good time to look back at the events following the 2000 election. As you will recall, former Vice President Al Gore was denied the Presidency by a decision of the Unites States Supreme Court. Vice President Gore subsequently appealed to a higher authority. Following is one of the reports I posted on some newsgoups in 2000 regarding this appeal:

In what could be the final blow to Vice President Al Gore's Presidential campaign, the Federation Council has refused his appeal to overturn the adverse ruling against him by the United States Supreme Court issued on December 12, 2000. An unsigned majority ruling agreed that this would be a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive.

In a concurring statement, Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan refused Al Gore's request to perform Vulcan mind melds to definitively determine the will of the voters. While conceding that a majority of Florida voters may have intended to vote for Mr. Gore on election day, Ambassador Sarek declared that "Logic would dictate that voters who preferred Al Gore should have punched the chad by Al Gore's name, not Pat Buchanan's name."

The majority statement did not refute Mr. Gore's assertion that Texas Governor George Bush's future Supreme Court appointees would result in further racial and cultural divide, culminating in the Bell Riots of 2024, but did find that the these events were part of the time line which ultimately resulted in the formation of the United Federation of Planets. For reasons which were not explained, Captain Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine recused himself when discussion of Gabriel Bell was raised.

In a dissenting view, several members saw no justification in refusing Mr. Gore's request to travel to the Guardian of Forever to determine if there was any validity to his accusations that a Bush Presidency would cause an alternative time line with the alternative Empire encountered by Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise.

A review of the time line also suggested that Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush were actually from an alternative time line than the one in which Star Fleet is a reality. While history of that era was sketchy, records seems to indicate that the President circa 2000 was actually named Jeb Bartlett.

Reaction to the Federation Council's decision was mixed. The Ambassador from the Bizarro Planet was puzzled as to what the controversy was all about, stating that, "On my Planet, the candidate who comes in second is always declared the winner."

Mr. Gore had no immediate response to this latest setback. After rumors that some aides were suggesting a further appeal of this decision to a higher authority, the Q Continuum offered to hear the case. "This is my kind of election," declared Q.