Recount: Great, good, so-so or terrible?

Brilliant. Gripping. Powerful. That's what the pros said. But what did you think about Recount?

(Also, check out St. Petersburg Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans' interview with Denis Leary, and a look at the accuracy of the movie.)

Comments

The only thing missing was the real life capital crackhead Mike Salerio- Bob Crawford's right hand man who now runs Bronson's office.

Sorry I missed it. Like all media Faux-umentaries, it was probably weighted down with too much propaganda to be informative.

I can already tell that it was innacurate because Katherine Harris was not played by a delusional hag.

Thought it was great...
Count our 2008 Primary votes!

Record turn out of Democrats on Jan 29th.

Real Democracy means count all the votes, as in "One Man One Vote"!

"Put Party before Politics"

LOL

[Eric Deggans]

Thanks for the link, Alex. Here's another to a story debating the movie's accuracy:

http://www.tampabay.com/features/media/article521957.ece

The movie was great. Showed K Harris as a total lunatic and Mac Stipanovich as the man pulling her strings.

I wonder if the closing scene where there are boxes of ballots sitting in a warehouse is accurate. Do the ballots still exist?

Also, even as a Democrat, I have to admit that when the newspaper consortium actually counted all the ballots and found that Bush had won, I had to accept that.

It seems like the movie boiled the whole debacle down to the core arguments of both parties.

GOP: we won the election on the first count, so stop counting, stop the nonsense, and declare a winner.

Dems: the outcome is uncertain and the GOP is playing games to hide the real winner of the election - Al Gore.

It seemed as though the Dems were portrayed as these altruistic crusaders for counting every vote and the Republicans were an insular group of super lawyers and corporate interests being commanded by Jim Baker.

At the end of the day, the goal of the production was to make an entertaining movie as opposed to serving as a realistic history of what happened with the election. A case in point, there was a lot of b-roll of crowds and crazy activists.

Typical liberal Hollywood movie that no one wants to see.

[Jane]

The movie was great, except for the ending of course. Laura Dern was very good, but never quite a much of a scary lunatic as Katherine Harris was. St. Petersburg's own Peggy Sheffield was in the movie, playing an election worker with great finesse.

I hope Florida has learned from the 2000 election not to let an idiot's henchmen steal the presidency for him.

1:01 AM - Typical liberal Hollywood movie?

Did you watch it? This movie made the Republicans look great and the Democrats looked totally incompetent. Stop the reflexive "liberal media" cry and look at the facts.

As a Democrat, I must say it was an accurate film - not a good portrayal of my party.

Oh get over it! If you can actually come up with some plans to help the middle class rather than tax them to the working poor (like the Republicans have), you can probably win the next election.

The Republicans have abandoned the middle class, so quit your kow towing to the illegal aliens and the socialists - this country became great because of policies that promoted a middle class - quit trying to appease those who would destroy us and figure out how to get this country back to doing what it does best - produce!!!!!

Bush won and Eric and the libeal St.Pete Times knows the truth. They just don't like reporting the truth without their liberal bias spin.

The lead of an April 4, 2001 USA Today story headlined, “Newspapers' recount shows Bush prevailed,” by reporter Dennis Cauchon:

George W. Bush would have won a hand count of Florida's disputed ballots if the standard advocated by Al Gore had been used, the first full study of the ballots reveals. Bush would have won by 1,665 votes -- more than triple his official 537-vote margin -- if every dimple, hanging chad and mark on the ballots had been counted as votes, a USA TODAY/Miami Herald/Knight Ridder study shows. The study is the first comprehensive review of the 61,195 "undervote" ballots that were at the center of Florida's disputed presidential election....

How about admitting this movie is full of lies and admit the truth George W. Bush won. Let the healing begin correct???????

Having been there it was interesting to see how others "thought" it was handled.

Not exactly accurate.

[Katherine Harris]

The movie is a fraud based on preconceived notions and Toobin's book of conspiracies. The writers and producers never spoke to me or my team in the Secretary of State's office. At a minimum they should have spoken to Ben McKay, Clay Roberts, Adam Goodman, and Joe Klock. None were spoken too. Ever. And to think Mac controlled everything is also not accurate as he was only in town a few days before he went to visit his daughter on the West Coast.

Mac did a his usual good job of self promotion. He interjected himself into the whole mess and was a marginal player at best. Where was Barry Richards, the real master mind?

Mac had so little to do with the real recount, but as usual was masterful at self promotion. The real story still awaits telling.

[zenator]

"Recount" is is a made-for-TV production by HBO, which mixes fact and fiction to create a biased drama.

It is somewhat ironic that 8 years later, it is the DNC that is leading the charge to disenfranchise Florida's Democratic voters.

Beware of more election fraud in 2008. The GOP stole the Presidency in 2004 and they will try again until we stop them.

[Susan S]

I tried to watch, but couldn't stop thinking about the 4082+ Americans (not to mention the innocent Iraqis) who have lost their lives in Iraq because Bush was allowed to steal the election.

[Gene Smith]

Zenator,

All this talk of the DNC disenfranchising Florida voters is going to look pretty silly next week when the Dems wind up with the same penalty (50% reduction in voting power of the delegation) that the RPOF is getting from the RNC.

[Jason Straight]

I was one other the characters ..Gore side..very accurate..Katherine was great!!

[Jason Straight]

Bush lost ..15,000 Retirees in Palm Beach county voted for Buchannan and black voters in Jax were wired out..Well I hope you guys enjoyed the last 8 years of the greatest presidency since Herbert Hoover..You keep what you kill.

That’s what you get when you put your trust in a Electronic Corporate Appointment System… errr… I mean Electronic Voting System. If these criminals are willing to send thousands of young American men and women to their death to avenge daddy and increase corporate profit… do you actually think they are not willing to rig an election to make it possible to begin with?

There are lots of Ironies about the 2000 election (I didn't see the show, I assume they had everyone from Joe Geller, to professor roberts, to Mark Herron in it).

Irony of Ironies is that Gore won the recount when overvotes (The votes which showed that they voted for Gore and then wrote his name in) from everywhere were counted (and they should have been under florida law).

More Irony. Bush won the recount when the four counties were recounted like Gore wanted, I also believe the media also showed Bush won when all the counties were recounted and overvotes weren't included.

The key was this, there was craziness on both sides (from the Republicans "revolting" in Dade to also the GOP extending deadlines to count soilders ballots, which I necessarily don't disagree with, to Democrats trying to do revote with their suits).

I believe more people in Florida came out to vote for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman in 2000. If you were to survey most people today, they would say the same thing (other than the Republicans who say get over it, they would come out the same way). But they accepted the results.

A lot of people had problems either getting to the polls (the African Americans who were purged and voted 90% for Gore), or casting ballots (the older people in South Florida with the confusing ballot). This effected more Gore voters than Bush voters. Bush can claim more people would have voted for him if the network hadn't called it early and would have had voters in the panhandle come out to him.

The bottom line was this even with the count coming out in favor of Gore or Bush, the Florida legislature voted to send Bush electors.

I believe Bush has really hurt the republicans electorally and some who helped him then may regret what they did in the long run for their party and country. But how would they know he turned out to be as bad a president as many people perceive him to be.

Despite losing the election even though more people voted for him to be president (which he always wanted to be prsident till 8 years ago), Gore is getting to live the good life and is a world wide figure with more esteem then probably almost all the us politicians.

More irony, with all the african americans who were purged from the voting rolls in 2000 (Whether by accident or purpose), the next leader of the free world is probably going to be an african american (how awesome is that in terms of irony.)

More irony, the other man who was on the losing end of the 2000, Lieberman, is now backing the GOP candidate and may very will be the running mate on that ticket. Imagine if he finally did become president on the Republican ticket.

I see the Rovettes and right-wing minion soft-brains are willing to join in too.

[Jamie Miller]

I thought it was funny how accurate RPOF headquarters looked - except the board room. Right down to throwing football while waiting on the U.S. Supreme Court decision. The "Bush" framed t-shirt instead of the "Mack" shirt was hilarious.

There were several areas of "theatrical license," but I thought the film did a good job of conveying the pace in which decisions were made.

There would've been a whole different set of facts known by the public if Bush ended up down, including,

Republicans were the first to recognize and report GOP voters being turned away from the polls (noon Election Day in a live local TV news broadcast in Broward County), the votes for Buchanan in Palm Beach were more likely Bush Votes than Buchanan (someone please go look at the ballot and tell me how someone votes "up" a hole? It is more likely that Bush voters followed the line "down" a hole and voted for Buchanan), and that after significant research the GOP found thousands of voters in West Florida (Central Time Zone) who did not go to vote after 6 p.m. because the major news organizations said the polls "throughout Florida" had closed. Bush didn't lose 11 minutes of voting but one hour in those 10 GOP-rich counties.

The film also depicted accurately, although as an aside, how the Democrats tried to get 51 votes (margin), but nearly 300 voters (total) in Nassau County thrown out. These were votes that were taken away from Bush in the first "machine" recount due to operator error, and the Democrats definitely petitioned to disenfranchise these voters when it met their needs.

The person who sent the most legal voters to the polls definitely won the Florida 2000 Election.

[No Talking Points]

Can Jason or Susan or any other left-wing nutjob out there offer any proof that Bush "stole the election"? Two separate court rulings cited the firm legal foundations for the interim and final result, and thousands of newspaper and television reporters have been through this episode too many times to count.

But, no..., you guys just never quit with all the conspiracy theories, do you? Do you hold full-time jobs, I wonder.

Logically connected facts that lead to an uncontrovertable conclusion are the way that you convince people that your arguments are more than just a mixture of fantasy + persuasive verbage. Take the time to critically analyze what you find and do the research, and don't rely on smear sites like MoveOn.org.

Anyone can repeat anything long enough and come to believe that it's mostly true for no other reason than they become personally invested in the statements repeated. For instance,- "GB is just finishing daddy's war". It's just ludicrous; so ludicrous, in fact, that everything else you say after that is stained by those simple, stupid, and immature remarks.

If either one of you finished any formal degree of education, I'd love to know where it was. Your professors would be ashamed.

Can 10:04 or any other right-wing nutjob minion out there offer any proof that Bush didn't steal the election?

Bush v. Gore -- Dufus.

[Joe from Philly]

If the Democrats don't count all of Florida from the 1/29 primary then all their complaining about 2000 is negated.
The movie was great, but the Republicans seemed tougher.Katherine Harris did not look that classy back in 2000, she wore more makeup. Guess Dern didn't want to look that clunky.
If the dems don't count the 1/29 votes they are going to lose a lot of us.

[JW]

Rules/laws that we live by, break them punishment to be had. If we start inoring the rules/laws we no better than the people who break them. get over it with the delegates, broke the rule , if want to blame , blame the fla. gov. for this not obama/clinton rules are rules. if went by the original date nothing would be said get over it don't make the same mistake 4 years from now...

I supplied HBO with 150+ props used in the movie "Recount" including authentic Palm Beach County voting machines, ballot boxes, transfer cases, and much more.

If you want an actual prop from the movie, call me at (727) 363-6397 or email me at Jim@JimDobyns.com.

http://www.JimDobyns.com

Get a life Jim. No one wants your junk.

[zenator]

Gene:

My response to your post was blocked as SPAM by the computer gods.

I want to know how much it cost Marc Dunbar for his camio druing the oral arguments in the Florida Supreme Court. Also how can you tell this story wiht out Barry Richards. I liked how they showed the true side of Katherine Harris especially when she was screaming at an aide for not putting the sugar in her Starbucks, but Tallahassee did not have a starbucks then. Not sure why they filmed the scences in Jacksonville at Plaza III and said it was Tallahassee.

I saw myself! Right there in the Florida Supreme Courtroom! Did you see me? Oh--and one of the funniest things was Mark Herron--he was made to look like a pudgy dork!

Click here: Reminder: Bush Won in Florida Recounts Conducted by the Media [HBO's 'Recount' movie 9 PM tonight]

[No Talking Points]

Can 10:04 or any other right-wing nutjob minion out there offer any proof that Bush didn't steal the election?

Posted by: | May 26, 2008 at 10:16 AM

Now, that's an intelligent position! Typical, I'm afraid, lib jibberish.

Yes, I can as a matter of fact. Neither he or anyone working for him or his campaign was ever charged with any unethical or illegal act regarding the entire episode: election day conduct, ballot counting or ballot re-counting. Try as they might, conspiracy theorists {all except you} gave up, went home, and cried themselves to sleep.

Thank you for the big target.

[Joe from Philly]

Hey, JW--as we saw from the RECOUNT movie last night it would not be over even if it went to court...until the votes are counted.
It will be impossible to believe the democrats ever again if they don't let the 1/29 primary stand. Why give the DNC money, time or loyalty when they are going to make sure they get who the supers want.
The little people's vote..the ones who actually vote--will never count in Florida. So what would be the use of voting ever again for a democrat? We'll see if the democrats believe in democracy ..or if they just believe in the insiders getting what they want.
Dean will be the Jim Baker of the DNC if the votes don't count.
Let the record primary votes--1.7 million--count.

"Neither he or anyone working for him or his campaign was ever charged with any unethical or illegal act regarding the entire episode:"

Typical minion soft-brain republicon retort:

“Hey, if you didn’t charge us, it must be legal!”

… pathetic dope

[Tallytowngal]

12:05 but, the punch ballots that were being challenged were never counted. Especially in Miami-Dade County where the Republicans fought the hardest to stop the vote counting. They knew what the results would show… AL Gore won the election!
In every county there was a hand recount Al Gore picked votes.
Also, the purging of 20,000 legal-non felon registered voters in the state of who were over 80% Democrats. Turned away at the polls. And this was before provisional ballots. Katherine Harris should have gone to prison for this action.
As well as the 1,000's of ballots that were thrown away in Democratic Precincts in Duval and Volusia Counties.
In Palm Beach Co. Buchanan votes were mostly mistakes. The voters there, started complaining immediately after casting their votes, saying they were worried that they voted for Buchanan instead of Gore. Not one complained that they meant to vote for Bush!
I live in Tallahassee, and worked in and around the Capitol in 2000 and still do.
This was a very accurate portrayal of the events that occurred! (Except for the Republican Party Headquarters.)

[No Talking Points]

Hey "adult" poster at 12:17, and I'm using that term very liberally,

Double whatever meds your on, borrow Hooked-On-Phonics from someone and learn how to read, then actually research the topic and reply with some facts whenever you've got some.

You, sir or madam, are precisely the image and caricature of uniformed citizenry that well-educated conservatives laugh at when they see the special interest mobs and Dems hold a rally. Lazy + Arrogance + Lunacy = Priceless!

Obviously, you've got a computer {so long as you keep make your minimum monthly payments}; now, try doing some actual work, find a few details, and enlighten us all. The 50,000,000+ people who voted for GB twice are waiting.

Well aren't you special and so very above averge 12:17??? My my--- and pray tell--- does a voter have any responsibility at all to educate themselves on how to vote?? Or, shall we just take for granted only Republicans can do that and therefore the are taking advantage of those poor SE Fl Democrats? Please give us your words of wisdom so we know what we should feel since only you have all the answers and only your very special point of view could possibly be correct.

Tallahassee did have a Starbucks at that time. The Starbucks was in Barnes & Noble on Appalachee which was in the location where there is now a World Market. Katherine Harris was know to get coffee from that Starbucks.

This movie makes me mad (all over again) -- at the Republicans for being so corrup and the Democrats for being so stuipd.

where was Steve Zack who played a major role in the recount with the Perry Mason moment getting the voting machine company to admit that it's machine was faulty and a patent pending on the new machine?

[jw]

why hash what happened 8 years ago can't change a thing , just like this year with the delegates if she wasn't that far behind nothing would be said if she was a head, so get over it and follow the rules in 2012 enough said ///

[Tallytowngal]

jw, not counting legitamate votes of citizens of our state and country is WRONG. It was wrong when the Republicans did it in 2000 and it is wrong for the DNC in 2008.

I know that this weekend, after the rules and bylaws committee meets... we WILL COUNT and hopefully in FULL!

Or the Dems can say "see ya later FL".