You've Got Me in Reality, But theoretically....

Just because it works in practice doesn't make it work in theory, says Princeton economist Paul Krugman:

The 2000 election is still an open sore on the body politic. That was clear from the outraged reaction to my mention last week of what would have happened with a full statewide manual recount of Florida.

This reaction seems to confuse three questions. One is what would have happened if the U.S. Supreme Court hadn't intervened; the answer is that unless the judge overseeing the recount had revised his order (which is a possibility), George W. Bush would still have been declared the winner.

Which is exactly what the FLUBA Shadow Krugman Committee pointed out last week:

The Democrats didn't ask for a 'full manual recount'. They asked for, and were granted by four members of Florida's Supreme Court, a targeted recount. And one in which there most certainly would not have been enough time to complete and certify before the date in December scheduled for the Electoral College to cast its ballots.

Which means that the Florida legislature would have cast its electoral votes for George W. Bush.

Meaning that any talk of a 'full manual recount' is a classic red herring.

The FLUBA SKC also reports that far from being outraged at that or any other Paul Krugman claim, it is highly amused at the spectacle of a John Bates Clark Medal holder shredding his credibility by his never ending displays of self-unawareness with such as, open sore on the body politic.

Only for perennial sore losers, Paul.