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Was it all just a dream?
God bless you, Florida! Thank you!
Did the last four years not really happen?
Look, there's Ben Affleck. He's often in my dreams.
And the Taxi Driver guy. He was there too.
And little Stevie Wonder, he seemed so happy...
... like a miracle had taken place.
Was it a dream?
We want Gore!
Or was it real?
It was election night 2000, and things seemed to be going as planned.
In New York, Al Gore is our projected winner.
The Garden State is green for Gore.
We project Mr. Gore the winner in Delaware. This state has voted with...
Excuse me, one second. I'm sorry to interrupt.
Mike, I wouldn't do this if it weren't big.
Florida goes for Al Gore.
CNN announces that we call Florida in the Al Gore column.
Then something called the Fox News Channel called the election...
... in favor of the other guy.
Fox News now projects George W. Bush the winner in Florida...
...and thus it appears the winner of the presidency of the United States.
All of a sudden, the other networks said:
"Hey, if Fox said it, it must be true."
All of us at the networks made a mistake...
...and projected Florida in the Al Gore column.
It was our mistake.
What most people don't know is that the man in charge...
... of the decision desk at Fox that night...
... the man who called it for Bush...
... was none other than Bush's first cousin John Ellis.
How does someone like Bush get away with something like this?
Well, first, it helps if your brother is the governor of the state in question.
You know something? We are gonna win Florida. Mark my words.
You can write it down.
Second, make sure your campaign chairman...
... is also the vote-count woman and that her state hires a company...
... to knock voters off the rolls who aren't likely to vote for you.
You can usually tell them by the color of their skin.
Then make sure your side fights like it's life or death.
This talk about legitimacy is overblown.
President Bush! President Bush!
And hope the other side sits by.
And even if numerous independent investigations...
... prove that Gore got the most votes...
If there was a statewide recount, Gore won the election.
... it won't matter, as long as all your daddy's friends...
... on the Supreme Court vote the right way.
While I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it.
What we need now is acceptance.
We have a new president-elect.
It turns out none of this was a dream. It's what really happened.
On the day the joint session of both the House of Representatives...
... and the Senate was to certify the election results...
... AI Gore, in his dual role as outgoing vice president...
... and president of the Senate...
... presided over the event that would officially anoint...
... George W. Bush as the new president.
If any congressman wanted to raise an objection, the rules insisted...
... that he or she had to have the signed support of just one senator.
Mr. President, and I take great pride in calling you that...
...I must object because of the overwhelming evidence...
...of misconduct, deliberate fraud and an attempt to suppress voter...
The chair must remind members that under Section 18 of Title 3...
...United States Code, no debate is allowed in the joint session.
Thank you, Mr. President. To answer your question...
...the objection is in writing, signed by a number of members...
...of the House of Representatives, but not by a member of the Senate.
Mr. President, it is in writing and signed by several House colleagues...
...on behalf, and myself, of the 27,000 voters of Duval County...
...in which 16,000 of them are African-Americans...
...that was disenfranchised in this last election.
Is the objection signed by a member of the Senate?
Not signed by a member of the Senate.
The Senate is missing.
It is in writing and signed by myself...
...on behalf of many of the diverse constituents...
...especially those in the 9th Congressional District...
...and all American voters who recognize that the Supreme Court...
...not the people of the United States, decided this election.
Is the objection signed by a senator?
Unfortunately, Mr. President, it is not signed by one single senator.
I have no authority over the United States Senate...
...and no senator has signed.
Mr. President, it is in writing and signed by myself and several...
...of my constituents from Florida. A senator is needed, but missing.
Is the objection in writing...
...and signed by a member of the House and a senator?
The objection is in writing, and I don't care...
...that it is not signed by a member of the Senate.
The chair will advise that the rules do care...
...and the signature of a senator...
Not a single senator came to the aid of the African-Americans in Congress.
One after another, they were told to sit down and shut up.
It's a sad day in America, Mr. President, when we can't find...
...a senator to sign the objections...
- The gentleman will suspend... - New Democratic senators won't sign.
- I object. - The gentleman will suspend.
Inauguration coverage, 2001...
...on a nasty, but it could be worse, kind of day in Washington.
- What do we want? - Justice!
- When do we want it? - Now!
On the day George W. Bush was inaugurated...
... tens of thousands of Americans poured into the streets of D. C...
... in one last attempt to reclaim what had been taken from them.
They pelted Bush's limo with eggs...
Stay back! Get back!
... and brought the inauguration parade to a halt.
The plan to have Bush get out of the limo for the traditional walk...
... to the White House was scrapped.
Bush's limo hit the gas to prevent an even larger riot.
No president had ever witnessed such a thing on his inauguration day.
And for the next eight months, it didn't get any better for George W. Bush.
He couldn't get his judges appointed, he struggled to pass his legislation...
... and he lost Republican control of the Senate.
His approval ratings in the polls began to sink.
He was already beginning to look like a lame-duck president.
With everything going wrong, he did what any of us would do.
He went on vacation.
Oh, no!
In his first eight months in office before September 11 th...
... George W. Bush was on vacation, according to The Washington Post...
... 42 percent of the time.
If I hit every shot good, people would say I wasn't working.
It was not surprising that Mr. Bush needed some time off.
Being president is a lot of work.
What about these folks that say that you're taking too long of a vacation?
They don't understand the definition of work, then.
I'm getting a lot done. You don't have to be in Washington to work.
It's amazing what can happen with telephones and faxes.
Thank you so much.
- Is this to Destiny and Bubba? - Yeah.
What are you doing the rest of the day?
Karen Hughes is coming over. We're working on some things.
And she'll be over here. We're working on a few things, a few matters.
I'm working on some initiatives. We're... You'll see.
There'll be some decisions I will have made while I'm here.
We'll be announcing them as time goes on.
The first time I met him, he had some good advice for me.
Governor Bush, it's Michael Moore.
Behave yourself, will you? Go find real work.
And work was something he knew a lot about.
- Anybody want some grits? - Yeah.
Relaxing at Camp David. Yachting off Kennebunkport.
How you doing?
Or being a cowboy on the ranch in Texas.
I love nature, getting in the truck with my dogs.
Oh, hi.
George Bush spent the rest of August at the ranch...
... where life was less complicated.
Armadillos love to dig the soil looking for bugs.
And...
So I went out there the other day, and there was Barney...
...buried in this hole, chasing an armadillo.
It was a summer to remember.
Afterward, he left Texas for his second-favorite place.
On September 10th, he joined his brother in Florida...
... where they looked at files and met important Floridians.
He went to sleep that night in a bed made with fine French linens.
Do you suppose he's pretty confident...
...on those numbers on Iraqi security forces?
Make me look young.