Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too

by Mark Crispin Miller

For Republicans, the 2004 presidential election was little short of miraculous: Behind in the Electoral College tally in the days leading up to the election, behind even on the very afternoon of the vote, the Bush ticket staged a stunning comeback. The exit polls, usually so reliable, turned out to be wrong by an unprecedented 5 percent in the swing states. Conservatives argued-and the media agreed-that "moral values" had made the difference. In his new book renowned critic and political commentator Mark Crispin Miller argues that it wasn't moral values that swung the election-it was theft. While the greatest body of evidence comes from the key state of Ohio-where the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee found an extraordinary onslaught of Republican-engineered vote suppression, election-day irregularities, old-fashioned intimidation tactics, and illegal counting procedures-similar practices (and occasionally worse ones) were applied in Florida, Oregon, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and even New York. A huge array of anomalies, improper practices, and blatant violations of the law all, by a truly remarkable coincidence, happened to swing in the Bush ticket's favor.This pattern-not one overwhelming fraud but thousands of little ones-is, in Miller's view, the new Republican electoral strategy. This incendiary new book presents massive documentation that the election was stolen and describes the mind-set, among both the major parties and the media, that could permit it to happen again.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Mark Crispin Miller graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in 1971, Johns Hopkins University with an MA in 1973, and a PhD in 1977. He is currently Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform.

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really hard to pick a star rating for this book because I don't know how I feel. A friend bought this book for me for Christmas, and I didn't know if I even wanted to read it. Too conspiracy theory-ish, but after almost 400 pages, I am convinced. Something does need to be done. Regardless if the Democrats won big in 2008, overcoming the Republican machine, we should act now to make sure that both parties (and, ideally, all parties...) have an equal chance. This doesn't require much. Just honesty.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a hystarical tone that makes you read faster and faster hopeing that there will be some relief and offer some good news. That dose not happen nor dose the auther offer any helpful advise for how we can prevent this sort of thing happening in the future. (dispite the prethetical part of the title) However he dose offer enough actuall eveidence to back his claim that the right did steal the 2004 presidential election by criminal means. Which to some will be a compleat suprize as it was to me. I had fallen into the classic trap of lissioning to the media and beliveing that America actually elected this guy. Which aparently we didn't. Some of us did. Which is right and fair but some us didn't. What I find horrible is that as a group ALL of our voteing rights were violated even thouse who wanted to Vote for Bush. Some of them too were disifanchized because they weren't staunch supporters. (How staunch can you be when you've never even met the guy?)

But all in all this book had alot of good information. I just didn't really like the style of the writing. Even though I could not put it down.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives credible evidence of irregularities in the 2004 election, claiming that the right stole the election. The writing is entertaining clear and approachable.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading the second edition of this book, which came out in 2007. I recently saw Prof. Miller at a vote protection meeting so I thought I'd throw a few bucks his way. His signature is illegible.

Prof. Miller is a good film analyst as well as my favorite Bush-basher (after Pat Buchanan), but the evidence of wide-spread electoral fraud he offers here is uneven.

He claims Republican manipulation for electoral snafus which might have many causes unrelated to the Republicans. Some incidents are explored in some detail while others are frustratingly spare.

Prof. Miller seems to be sliding to the position that any political outcome he doesn't like must be the result of opposition-induced fraud, which is similar to what he accuses the Bushites of doing.

But the book is a fast, entertaining read. His condemnation of the "Busheviks" as pathological "projectors" is highly partisan and bracing. I agree with Miller that the nation is in some kind of collective trance (post-9/11 shock?) in which the anti-democratic misconduct of the Bushites is plain to see yet promotes no sustained outrage or response.

Perhaps the genius of the conservatives Republicans is that they have a natural instinct for knowing how far you can degrade public discourse (right wing talk radio) and government conduct (arms for hostages, obstructing investigation into 9/11, waging war based on lies, politicizing the judiciary, kidnapping and torturing foreigners, warrantless spying on Americans) without incurring punishment.

I think on some level we expect conservatives to behave this way, so criticizing them for doing so becomes pointless--something like the fable of the frog and the scorpion. The Bushites claim the moral high ground while at the same time accusing their opponents of being so evil that they have to fight dirty to "protect America" (I'm channeling Prof. Miller here).

The Bushites are a truly post-modern phenomenon: complete sincerity and complete cynicism at the same time.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a must read, particularly if you still believe we function in a democracy. Yeah, we all know the 2000 election was stolen. But 2004? How could that be? While this book includes a lot of detailed examples from the election archives, it is essential to wade through it and find out just how pervasive the rigging of the presidential election has become.