With the current lack of interesting topics outside of Florida, this column is essentially me mugging the Daily for a paycheck. I need to eat.

As a result, you can read the insightful political commentary from a talented and qualified commentator like me, an undergraduate electrical engineering student. For those still reading, I’m sure a few of you don’t agree with what I’ve said so far.

First of all, you might say that there are a lot of exciting things going on in the world, such as the recent election of Mexican President Vicente Fox and the future of serial human rights abuser Augusto Pinochet. In response, come on, man! I know you don’t want to read an entire column about that.

Secondly, a few of my engineering peers might be a little perturbed that I mentioned the myth that engineers are unable to form coherent opinions on politics or social issues, much less provide relevant commentary on them to a greater proficiency than an inebriated, quadriplegic weasel can juggle. Of course I don’t believe that. Everyone’s entitled to his own opinion, provided it’s an informed one. If I offended any engineers, here’s a joke to prove I’m on your side: liberal arts degree.

Now that I’ve succeeded in alienating the majority of this campus, I’ll move on to my opinion on this whole Florida debacle. There are a lot of differing opinions on what votes should be counted and whether Gore should concede or whatever. I don’t possibly have time to analyze everyone’s take on this. Therefore, for reasons of brevity I will only touch on two: my opinion and the wrong opinion.

My argument is very simple: why isn’t Gore president yet? Is there any reasonable doubt that nationally, more people voted for this man despite the widespread irregularities in a state governed by his opponent’s younger brother with an obviously partisan, she-wolf Secretary of State?

The Electoral College is a joke. Yes, it does help out smaller states such as Iowa, but all this amounts to is one vote being worth less than another. More people may have voted last month for my personal idol, Al Gore, but their votes were rendered insignificant because the states they lived in were too populated. That’s wrong. The Electoral College should either be abolished or reworked to eliminate such a gross misappropriation of votes. States such as Alaska and Wyoming have very few people and don’t deserve the current minimum of three electoral votes. All votes should be equal.

Several weeks ago, the GOP launched an enormous PR blitzkrieg to sway popular opinion into accepting George W. Bush as the legitimate winner. He isn’t. His certified 537 vote lead in Florida is miniscule compared to the votes intended for Gore. An analysis commissioned by the Miami Herald showed that if all ballots were cast flawlessly, Gore would have carried the state by over 23,000 votes. Even if 90 percent of the 185,000 machine-registered non-votes in the Florida election were really non-votes, Gore’s lead in the meager 10 percent would have still handily won him the state by 1,443.

A separate study done by the Washington Post showed that minority votes were disproportionately thrown out. According to the study, in Duval County, “In the most heavily white precincts, about 1 in 14 ballots were thrown out, but in largely black precincts more than 1 in 5 ballots were spoiled and in some black precincts, it was almost one-third. By comparison, in the District of Columbia, fewer than 1 in 50 ballots were not counted as votes for president.”

The only thing Gore ever wanted was a manual recount of the entire state. After that proposal was firmly shot down by the Bush camp, he requested recounts in three specific counties with a large number — 72,000 — of invalidated ballots-Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade. Bush supporters are quick to say these counties are Democratic strongholds, but their distinction only furthers the point that Gore should really have more votes than he does right now.

So why does public opinion think Gore’s finished? You’ve been brainwashed by a brilliantly orchestrated PR war to believe that this election is over and that Bush’s flawed but certified 537 vote lead somehow makes him the legitimate President-elect.

You’ve been brainwashed to believe Gore’s a sore loser and should concede the election for losing by an insignificant amount in a machine count with a significant margin of error and 185,000 thrown out ballots, certified in the most subjectively partisan manner by a cronie of his opponent.

Bush would have been utterly destroyed by a full hand recount. There would have been no uncertainty.

But that recount and several other ones will never happen because Gore has lost the PR war and public opinion has forsaken him.