am now going to explain why America is a great country:
We transfer power from one individual to another, and one political party to another, better than any nation in history. We turn over the levers of power, the control of the Treasury and the tax laws, the ability to name judges for life, to appoint all the nabobs and satraps of administrative clout, the leaders of the most fearsome military machine since creation.
And we do it without bloodshed. Sometimes we do it neat and clean, following landslide elections, which are vast shifts in the tectonic plates of politics. And sometimes we do it the other way, neither neatly nor crisply. And, as in the 1876 election, and maybe this one just past, not even fairly.
As we sit now, the man with the most popular votes nationwide is Vice President Al Gore. His lead, as of Friday's count, was upward of 248,000 votes. He was also the man with the most electoral votes, not counting Florida's. Further, it is clear to my satisfaction that more Floridians woke up Nov. 7 and went to the polling station intent on voting for Gore than intended to vote for George W. Bush.
But things came apart for the Gore camp in Florida. The infamous ''butterfly ballot'' in Palm Beach County resulted in thousands of spoiled ballots. Voters confused by the juxtaposition of the Pat Buchanan ballot line with the Gore-Lieberman line mistakenly punched the hole for Buchanan, and when they realized their mistake, then punched the hole for Gore.
Those ballots, which would have given Gore a clear majority in Florida, were tossed out. Sorry, them's the rules. Then Gore got gored in another tender spot. The hand recounts demanded by Democrats in Palm Beach and Broward counties were short-circuited. The initial counts there may have undercounted votes intended for Gore that were eliminated as questionable ballots, or didn't pass muster with mechanical vote-counting machines.
Florida's secretary of state, Katherine Harris, made a series of rulings that delighted the Bush camp and infuriated the Gore side. As a partisan Republican campaigner, Harris had traveled the country urging Bush's election. She'd engineered the state-paid TV spots urging high voter turnout and featuring retired General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, a bitterly partisan commander-turned-politician who savaged Gore in the late stages of the campaign in Florida.
Harris, an ambitious pol whose constitutional office is being abolished, is clearly in the market for a job in the Bush administration, either one in Washington or the Florida subcontracting firm run by brother Jeb, the Other Governor.
By decreeing that ballots recounted by hand could not be considered in the tally she was apparently determined to rig for Bush, Harris's became the face of the election that was stolen. There is the likelihood that she'll be the Monica Lewinsky of this scandal, doomed to a lengthy period of tabloid turmoil.
Clearly taking signals from the Bush high command, Harris did everything possible to make Bush the victor. Her ambition to run for the US Senate is obviously a casualty of her decisions last week. It is hard to see how a state split so badly on an election of this magnitude would reward her with a Senate seat. But then, as we have seen, just about anything is possible in Florida.
When Jim Baker strode before the mikes Friday to intone, ''The rule of law has prevailed,'' it was hard not to break into a smile. Sonorously hailing a circuit judge's endorsement of ''`the reasoned judgment,' close quote, of the secretary of state,'' Baker strode offstage with the air of a gambler who'd just reassured himself that the deck was properly stacked as he awaited the final deal, the absentee ballot count.
Now, there are all sorts of practical reasons why we should not rerun the election in Florida, or everywhere else. Who'd vote? Just those who voted Nov. 7? Everybody eligible? How would you safeguard against intimidation, fraud, corruption, riots? There are not enough cops in Florida to micromanage the recasting of 6 million ballots. It would be an even bigger mess.
The fairest thing would have been to recount the whole state, all 67 counties, agreeing that spoiled ballots were not to be counted, and that uniform and bipartisan vote-screening procedures would give you a system of reevaluation that was fair statewide.
But with Harris the dummy, and Baker the ventriloquist, that solution was cleverly and effectively blocked by the Republicans. All the pious claims about this outcome being ''fair'' and ''final'' and redeeming ''the rule of law'' are totally bogus. This was a bag job, from the start. Then late Friday, the Florida Supreme Court waved its wand, ruling unanimously that Harris could not rush to certify the numbers, and in so doing tip the presidency to Bush. More to come on that front tomorrow afternoon.
But I return to the argument why this is a great country. There are worse things than losing an election. And there are worse things than having an election stolen out from under you. The respect for the traditions and customs of our land is wide and deep. Either Al Gore or George W. has to suck it up, when this wrangle is finally ended.
If Gore comes up short, we have to say yes, Al, you got the most popular votes. And, yes, you won more electoral votes when we tallied up the other 49 states and the District of Columbia. And, yep, I have no doubt that more Floridians intended to vote for you and Joe Lieberman than for Bush and Dick Cheney.
But if you got jobbed, you got jobbed. The absentee voter ploy was masterminded by Jeb Bush, the Other Guv. Ralph Nader stove in your chances here, especially, kicking a real hole in the Democrats' boat with his 98,000 going-nowhere-fast votes.
Those befuddled souls who innocently voided ballots by punching more than one hole cost you dearly. Then Ms. Harris, the Lady in Black of this affair, did her thing, a political tool under the thumb of Bush & Bush & Bush Unlimited.
If Bush & Bush & Bush et al. get their way, Al, you're not the first guy to get screwed in politics. Life is unfair, as JFK famously said. You got called out at the plate by an umpire's wrong call in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series. It happens. Life goes on.
I voted for you, as did Massachusetts by a 60-to-32 ratio, because I thought you were the better man. Now you may have a chance to prove your worth to the country, by the manner in which you handle what may eventually turn out to be a crushing and unfair result.
David Nyhan is a Globe columnist.
