Ron Reagan ain't too Bright

He just claimed on MSNBC that "Gore won Florida" and that the media recounts showed that "in every recount, Gore won"--which is wholly false. In all the recount methods that the media engaged in, save one, Bush won.

From the Conservative Network of Record, CNN, we have:

If a recount of Florida's disputed votes in last year's close presidential election had been allowed to proceed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Republican George W. Bush still would have won the White House, two newspapers reported Wednesday.

The Miami Herald and USA Today conducted a comprehensive review of 64,248 "undercounted" ballots in Florida's 67 counties that ended last month.

Their count showed that Bush's razor-thin margin of 537 votes -- certified in December by the Florida Secretary of State's office -- would have tripled to 1,665 votes if counted according to standards advocated by his Democratic rival, former Vice President Al Gore.

"In the end, I think we probably confirmed that President Bush should have been president of the United States," said Mark Seibel, the paper's managing editor. "I think that it was worthwhile because so many people had questions about how the ballots had been handled and how the process had worked."

Gore won the media recount only vua one method, one Gore never asked for:

Ironically, a tougher standard of counting only cleanly punched ballots advocated by many Republicans would have resulted in a Gore lead of just three votes, the newspaper reported

Without getting into the basic problems with recounts, this situation simply shows that Mr. Reagan should follow the maxim: "It's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."