FutureNews - Washington, DC, December 2, 2004 - In a 5-4 majority opinion which begins, "Your turn is over, and now it's time to share," the Supreme Court handed the narrowly contested 2004 presidential race to Democrat Howard Dean. The ruling in the lawsuit over the narrow margins of victory and subsequent recounts in Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Hawaii effectively halts recount efforts in those states, and provides Democratic challenger Howard Dean with a three-vote margin of victory in the electoral college, despite having 350,000 fewer popular votes than President George W. Bush.

Even Supreme Court watchers who predicted this outcome were surprised by the language in the majority opinion. Authored by Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the opinion often takes a pedantic, and even exasperated tone. Coming after a year of ferocious partisan battles and what many Americans feel was the most negative Presidential campaign in recent memory, many will sympathize with the Court's opinion.

Ginseberg, writing for the majority, addressed President Bush directly at one point: "When we gave you the Presidency four years ago, you knew it was for a limited time, and it isn't fair for you to monopolize it when someone else wants to be President." At another point, addressing Howard Dean, "Nobody likes a smarty-pants, and if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. Just because it's your turn to be President doesn't mean we think your behavior deserves it."

Said Supreme Court watcher Howard Wheeler at the Center for Pedantic Democracy, "I think the Supreme Court has shown an excellent understanding of the mood of the American electorate. After all the dirt, the mud, the name-calling, and the generally unpleasant tone of this election, many people just want to smack the two candidates on the head, or send them to their rooms for a time-out."

The Supreme Court went beyond the narrow legal issues of this particular case, however, and also addressed issues related to the governance of the two parties. "We're sick and tired of having to clean up after both Republicans and Democrats, and it's high time you both started picking up your own messes and not leaving them for someone else," wrote Ginsberg in the decision; and elsewhere: "If the two of you can't learn to share power nicely, we're just going to have to take it away and give it to someone else. The way you carry on, I'd think you had nothing better to do but squabble and fight all day long. Uff-da! It's a miracle anything gets done in this country!"

Noted Wheeler, "The inclusion of the Norwegian phrase, uff-da, which is an expression of extreme disgust or disgruntlement, is particularly striking. As far as we know, Justice Ginsberg is not herself Norwegian, which implies she searched well beyond her own linguistic heritage to find just the right phrase. From this we can infer that she, like most Americans, is really disgusted with the tone of this political season."

At a news conference after the decision was announced, President-Elect Dean sounded a triumphant tone. "This long campaign is over, but now the hard work begins. But first, I must acknowledge the effort of my opponent. President Bush, you fought a hard campaign, but I won. Nyah nyeah nyeah! Pbbbbbbbt! How does 'Former President Bush' sound, huh? Now you can slink back to Texas and join your daddy in the one-term club!"

In contrast, Bush thanked his volunteers and campaign workers for their hard effort: "You all did a great job, and we should have won. We did win! I got more votes than he did, and it isn't fair! It just isn't fair! He'll be sorry! Oooooh, I hate him!"

However, one media watcher noted that more Americans watched the new episode of "Reality Unreal" than both candidates' speeches combined.