Sir, - To use George H. Briscoe's metaphor (December 30th), is a horse that loses the Derby usually declared the winner?
Mr Briscoe believes that "George Bush won the election". Not true, unless he is referring to the election won by Bush's father and namesake in 1988. George W. Bush won the electoral college by a wafer-thin margin, after legal recounts were obstructed by state officials acting under the authority of his brother. Bush lost the popular ballot by 350,000 votes. The howls of outrage from Washington if a South American nation produced such a blatantly undemocratic result can only be imagined.
George W. Bush is compared by Mr Briscoe to Harry Truman. A more appropriate comparison could be made to Benjamin Harrison, the last US President elected to the White House despite suffering defeat in the popular vote (in 1888). Harrison is now almost universally forgotten. Fate will be kind to Bush if he too is not remembered at all. After the recent electoral shambles, however, he is unlikely to be so fortunate. - Yours, etc.,
John Walsh, Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.