While listening to Hugh Hewitt's interview with Mark Halperin I was stunned to hear that Mr. Halperin still does not realize what harm the early and erroneous call of an Al Gore victory did to campaigns here on the west coast.  I was working in a local campaign office for the Republican Party as a volunteer and recall vividly the reaction of not only the Republican staff and volunteers in the office, but potential Republican voter reaction after the medias attempt to install a democrat president.
At the moment of the dinosaur medias announcment that FLorida was now being called for Gore, papably the energy left the office, as did many of the staff and volunteers who had been working tirelessly until that point.  Many of our phone bank volunteers stood up and left for home, others stopped working and fell into stunned silence, some even cried.   For Halperin to think that such an infamous error had no effect on turnout is deluded.   After the initial shock of the early Gore victory announcement receded, those of us who remained in the office at our phone banks resumed making calls to voters who had not yet punched a ballot.  Almost without exception the reaction of potential voters to our stating we were calling from the Republican Party, was that the race was over and that we had lost.   Most hung up after repeating the "NEWS" of Gore's victory.  These were by an large elderly voters who might have difficulty getting to their polling place, or working folk who had just arrived home from work and were considering heading back out to vote. Many simply stated that we had lost and they did not intend to vote now that they knew the national result.  Others were clearly angry with us, as representatives of the Republican Party for not doing enough to win.  Many did not even respond after we announced we were calling from the Republican Party, but slammed the phone down in disgust.   This was the result 8 out of 10 calls.  This is a true and real consequence of the left wing medias exit poll ploy.  These potential Republican voters not only did not punch the national race ballot, but left many California State Candidates and propositions misrepresented without their voices.  The Left likes to abuse the term "disenfranchised" as it relates to those on the left they think are not represented in our elections.  If Mr. Halperin would like to debate me on the issue of how his LEFTIST MEDIUM disenfranchised a substantial group of Republican citizens in the 2000 early election call debacle, I will gladly make myself available.