ABSTRACT
Remember the 2000 Presidential election? It seems now like ancient history. Looking back, the election gave out-of-favor nations the chance to poke the ribs of the know-it-all superpower that loves to preach about the ideals of democracy. Robert Mugabe’s administration in Zimbabwe offered to send observers to help Floridians run a fair election, Havana’s daily, Granma, ran a headline calling the United States a “banana republic,” and other recipients of American advice over the years-China, Russia, even Saddam Hussein’s Iraqall got in their digs (Freedland). But nearly every American newspaper missed the humor. They failed to report the international teasing, choosing instead to draw morals that every vote counts and that the framers of the Constitution were wise to allow so much time to sort out muddled elections.
