Irony Alert: A Kennedy Laments A Stolen Election

Ah, I kid the Kennedys because I love. Maybe. At any rate, Robert Kennedy Jr. has come out with a long-awaited, in the circles still agitated about such things, and long-winded Rolling Stone story that purports to prove in great detail that sinister Republican machinations caused a fake Bush victory in Ohio in 2004, and thus a fake Bush victory nationwide. It's the sort of breathlessly detailed story that, if it's all you knew about the topic, seems quite energetically damning and convincing on the surface.

The usual pro-Bush suspects have mostly ignored the article. Ron Chusid at Dembloggers laments Kennedy's piece as an "embarrassment which will likely do far more harm than good to the cause of election reform" and has a good discussion and link collection of chatter, almost all negative, about the article among people who might be expected to cheer Kennedy's conclusions. The general conclusion: certainly, some flaws and even possible chicanery in Ohio (as in many elections, in many places). But no smoking gun that amounts to an actual Kerry victory.

Salon–no bastion of pro-Bush sentiment or a gang you'd suspect of propping up his illegitimate regime–has the most thorough and professional debunking of Kennedy's claims. This topic has been in the past a wonderful argument starter and source of baroque theories (though it may well be thoroughly played out by now); feel free to relive those halcyon days of mysteriously long lines, wacky exit poll missteps, spoiled ballots, invalidated registrations, and Kenneth Blackwell's brief heyday as a household word in the comments thread.