What were you doing when you heard Bush "won" in 2000?

[zanana]

I'll never forget it. We had just brought our Christmas tree home when I heard it on CNN. My heart sunk to my stomach; I got nauseous. The only other time in my 52 years when I feared for my country; the day JFK was assassinated. I remember where I was then, too.

[ThomWV]

1. High School Then, Home This Time

I was in High School, in Wheaton, Maryland, when Kennedy was shot. I was at home, watching CNN, when the nation was shot by the Supreme Court.

[proud patriot]

2. Crying

:-(

[tom_paine]

3. Drinking champagne with my now ex-girlfriend

My God, the drunken toasts when Gore won Florida.

And the dreadful chill that went down my spine, first of many thousands, and that Orwellian gut-wrench (so common in today's Empire), when Poppy and Smirky* got on and said, "Don't believe it. We won Florida." or whatever the exact words were.

I remember rising to my feet (drunkenly) and saying loudly, "Did you just hear what he said? Did I just hear what he said?"

From then on, it was all downhill. So agitated that I couldn't even stay the night with her. I went home to watch until 4am, then fell into a dark, exhausted sleep.

And that was how I spent the evening of the Last Election of the Old American Republic.

[jedicord]

8. You heard that too!

No one else remembers him saying that! I distinctly remember him saying "We will win Florida, my brother Jeb has guaranteed it." With that smirk right at the camera. Brought chills to my bones! This after all the numbers gave it to Gore!

Next thing I know, I wake up and it ain't over! I knew then he was a freakin' crook.

[Mandate My Ass]

13. I remember it

It's actually seared into my memory. He had that half smug half snotty look on his face when they called it for Gore. He was so cock sure when he said it was his it made me ill to watch.

[jedicord]

4. I don't remember where I was...

I just remember a Republican friend with whom I like to debate sending me an e-mail uncharacteristically sticking it in my face.

I replied back with (paraphrasing) "This was not a football game, you SOB. This is our country and Bush terrifies me!"

Three years later, I remind him of that e-mail and he says that Bush scares the sh*t out of him now too.

[Kid_A]

5. I was sitting in the same chair I sat in watching TV all day on 9/11.

Probably the two worst days for this country since Pearl Harbor.

[patdem]

6. Celebrating because Gore 'WON'!!!!

Of course from there to shocked dis belief til this very day still in shocked dis belief!!!!

[Skidmore]

7. I was in my office at work and listening to NPR...

I started sobbing--something I find myself doing on a regular basis these days. I cannot believe how quickly that lying bully has destroyed my country.

[Solly Mack]

9. I had 3 TVs going on different stations

I was home when the SCOTUS decision to select and not elect was announced.

I was so angry. Still am...

[Lisa]

10. I was working on my graduate dissertation ...

That day, I figured I'd take a break and check the US election results (I'm in Canada but we do get cable up here). (I rationalized it on the basis of Gore's policies possibly having an impact on my research topic, the Kyoto climate treaty.) I tuned in when they had already called Florida for Gore -- and was about to pack it in for the night when the "correction" was announced. This was so confusing that I kept the TV on, and was still watching past midnight as Dan Rather looked more and more frazzled.

Around then I had the feeling that this was a BIG development -- I was watching to see Gore's concession speech (I figured I owed the guy that much, anyway) -- and as the camera stayed fixed on the empty stage, I started to think that we had stepped off a cliff.

Other people on DU have mentioned that they also sensed something very bad had happened, not a simple electoral loss but something much worse.

[Saltdog]

11. We were in Germany

And we wanted to stay there!

[cally]

12. When the Supreme Court ruled that votes could not be

counted, I walked out of the restaurant I was at and just started crying. Everyone in the mall seemed so normal and unconcerned and I was seething with rage. I remember my disbelief that so many Americans could just not care that votes were not counted.

[MallRat]

17. I had just come out of a movie when SCOTUS halted the counting.

The same thing happened to me. I felt the very underpinnings of our democracy being ripped away from beneath my feet, and yet people were just going on about their business, making dinner plans, chatting away on the cell phones.

[cally]

18. I still feel that sense of despair

Mostly, I'm enthusiastic and energized hearing all the folks who are active in the campaign. I still can't understand how anyone dismissed how abhorrent it is that we didn't count the votes. I have to restrain my true feelings when voters tell me they are too busy to vote. :argh:

[apnu]

14. working at a dot-bomb and watching...

... both the company and our government implode. Generally depressed.

But then the anger came... and here I am.

15. I was at my father's funeral

& thinking that if he hadn't died of a heart attack before the election (2 days before) he would have died of one then.

[LibDemAlways]

16. Driving home from an errand...

sick to my stomach - utterly disbelieving that the repukes had blatently stolen the presidency and no one seemed concerned. On 1/20/01 I tied a large black ribbon on the tree in front of my house. I've had a black ribbon on my front door ever since.

[drthais]

19. I was standing in the kitchen

the TV was way over there across a wide open area
and I heard that Supreme Court had stopped the recount

...and I almost fainted...
my thought at the time was...
'oh god, now I can't believe in the Supreme Court either'
there's almost nothing left

[Aunt Anti-bush]

20. It was TERRIBLE! Like a nightmare!

I had gone to bed that evening after watching the polls and they had declared Gore the winner. I went to sleep with the television on hoping that when Gore came on to do his acceptance speech I would wake up and see it. Instead, I wake up and they're saying some crap about a mistake and I opened my eyes and there is a big photo of GW and they're saying Bush is the winner.

I thought I was having a nightmare.

Unfortunately, I still have not been able to wake up from it...