MICHAEL MOORE is a failure as a prognosticator:

Sunday, November 3rd, 2002

Years from Now, They’ll Call It “Payback Tuesday”

Dear Friends,

Well, folks, Tuesday is the day! The day that George W. gets taught a long overdue lesson. The day that we, the MAJORITY — the 52% who never elected him — get our chance to reclaim a bit of our former democracy (back when ALL the votes used to be counted).

What if, on Tuesday, all of us, regardless of our political stripe, and just for the fun of it, decided to serve one big-ass eviction notice that said, you have two years to remove yourself from the premises-and you had better not damage anything on your way out?

I think we can give Bush the Mother of all Shellackings on Tuesday.

I think this is on a par with a lot of Moore’s other factual claims. Better read it before he takes it down. . . .

UPDATE: Some readers say that Moore’s screed should be read as a call to arms, rather than a prediction. Of course, just makes it a different kind of failure.

ANOTHER UPDATE: And quite a failure it was: UPI says the race overall went 53-47 for the GOP over the Dems. Hmm. . . think the people who set so much store by the popular-vote totals in 2000 will be talking about this figure? Nope. They’re in too great a state of denial. Which will only help the Republicans long-term, of course. Eric Raymond has some thoughts on the Dems’ disconnect with reality, and why it’s a deeper problem than most commentators seem to have realized.