Carter says Gore won 2000 election

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Carter...0_el_0922.html

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John Byrne
9/22/2005

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter delivered a shocker at an American University panel in Washington Monday: RAW STORY has learned he told the crowd he was certain Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election.

There is "no doubt in my mind that Gore won the election," the erstwhile President declared, saying the 2000 election process "failed abysmally."

He also snubbed the Supreme Court for getting involved, saying it was "highly partisan."

RAW STORY reviewed a video clip of the event late Wednesday. The comment came in response to a question from a student who asked Carter how he felt the last two elections were handled.

In the question and answer session of his talk intended to discuss the Baker-Carter commission report on election reform, he also savaged President Bush's handling of FEMA in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Carter founded FEMA in 1979.

When I founded FEMA "we put it together with three specific commitments," Carter remarked. "One, that it would be led [by] highly trained professionals in dealing with disasters. Secondly, that it would be completely independent and not under another agency that would submerge it. And third, that it would be adequately funded."

The former president said the key reason for creating the agency was to respond to governors who asked for a consolidation of the 16 bureaucracies previously responsible for emergency relief efforts. Carter said he hoped that the changes he ordered would have remained permanent, allowing for a more effective response to a hurricane now claiming upwards of 1000 lives.

Carter agreed with Bush on one point: "I think that now is the best time not to look back on blaming about Katrina, but to try to correct the defects that have evolved in recent years and make sure it is not repeated."

RAW STORY hopes to get permission to post the video, or at least audio, today or tomorrow.