Reversal
of Fortune
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Nonetheless, Gore called Bush around 2:30 to concede. "You're a good man," Bush told him. He said he understood how hard this was, and gave his best wishes to Tipper and the children.
But the man who "invented" the Internet was suddenly saved by it. As Gore's motorcade splashed through the rainy streets to the war memorial for the concession speech, traveling chief of staff Michael Feldman's pager quivered. It was field director Michael Whouley, saying he needed to talk to Daley. "Changed situation here," Whouley said. He was in the boiler room watching the Florida Board of Elections website, which, Daley says, "had the margin down to 900, and within minutes, it was 500, 200, slipping pretty quickly." By now the motorcade had arrived at the memorial. Daley told Feldman to grab the Veep and keep him from going onstage. "I said, 'Well, Michael, it probably would be good to go to a holding room,'" said Daley. Everyone's phone was ringing now. "We had no TV, everyone was on a cell phone," says adviser Greg Simon. "People were calling us from everywhere, saying you're only 500 votes, 600 votes behind, don't concede."
Daley called his counterpart in the Bush camp, Don Evans, and said, "We may have a situation here." Under Florida law, a margin that slim triggered an automatic recount. Then, around 3:45, Gore got on the phone himself with the Governor. "As you may have noticed, things have changed," he said. If indeed the vote went to Bush, he'd be happy to concede and give him his support, but for now, "the state of Florida is too close to call," Gore said.
Aides in the room say Bush was not taking the news well. "You could tell Bush was definitely barking at him," says someone who was there. "Let me make sure I understand," Bush said, stunned. "You're calling me back to retract your concession." These are two fiercely competitive men, and they have not become friends in the past year. "Well, there's no reason to get snippy," Gore said. He had to repeat himself - it's too close to concede - a couple of times. Bush was confident that this time the networks were right. Brother Jeb was right there, crunching the numbers for himself from the Florida website. "Let me explain it to you," Gore said. "Your younger brother is not the ultimate authority on this." The call ended abruptly. "Well, Mr. Vice President," Bush said, "you need to do what you have to do."
When Gore put down the phone, he pumped his arm in victory, the aides around him burst into cheers, and all began to applaud. Outside in the cold, damp night, his supporters were waiting for word. For a brief time, they debated the idea of rewriting the concession speech to capture the suspended animation and having Gore go out and give it. The Veep's concern was that all these people had waited hours in the rain, and they would want to see him in person. But they quickly decided to send Daley out instead. Daley and Karenna stood over speechwriter Eli Attie and shouted their ideas at him as he tapped out the draft of what the chairman would say.
As Daley bounded out onto the stage, the crowd chanted, "Stay and fight" and "We count" and, finally, "Fuzzy math."
"I've been in politics for a long time," he said. "But there's never been a night like this one." Gore and Lieberman, he said, were fully prepared to concede the race and wish Bush well "if and when he is officially elected President." But in the meantime, "our campaign continues."
Truer words were never spoken. Before the motorcade had even made it back to the Loews, the Gore team was moving fast. Seventy lawyers and operatives, led by former chief of staff Ron Klain, piled onto Lieberman's chartered plane to head down to Florida. They would be on the ground within two hours.
The rest of the world was dizzy. Foreign leaders had been sending Bush their congratulatory telegrams, and then had to call and retract them. The networks had unfurled their fancy presidential script, "George W. Bush, 43rd President," only to roll it back up again. The New York Times had to stop the presses. The Gore mob back at the hotel were as happy as they had been distraught about an hour before. Daley was telling reporters what happened. "When you're done, come into the bar!" Carter Eskew, Gore's old newspaper friend and now his message adviser, hollered.
"Fine," Daley answered. "I'll do the Today show from there."
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November 20,
2000 | NO. 46
US
ELECTION 2000
STANDOFF
2000: The Cliffhanger
Nancy Gibbs tells the story of Al Gore and George W. Bush's never-ending
election night and the constitutional trapdoors that may lie ahead for
a country in political limbo
BACK
TO SCHOOL: An Electoral College Primer
Why the winner will be chosen by 538 men and women
Public
Eye: Margaret Carlson urges calm and patience
FLORIDA
KEY: The Sunshine State Keeps Counting
The turbulent quest for the State's 25 electoral votes
CAPITOL
HILL: The First Lady is a Senator
How Hillary Clinton won her race for Congress
HISTORY:
No Surprises
Arthur Schlesinger Jr. on White House history repeating
Vote:
Barbara Ehrenreich on why she's not sorry
SOCIETY
IDEAS:
A Hardy Constitution
Australia's chief justice is a fan of the country's "rules"
T
H E A R T S
EXHIBITIONS:
Pursuing the delusion of Utopia
MUSIC:
PJ Harvey in a New York state of mind
CINEMA:
Philip Seymour Hoffman, the prince of perversity
TRAVELER'S
ADVISORY
PACIFIC
OBSERVED: The legacy of Whitlam's dismissal
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