Prime-Time
Battle
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As much
as Gore's team loathed Harris, Bush's wanted to throw her
a parade. "Everyone here believes that she is going to put
her name on the (certification) paper and call it a day,"
says an official in Austin. She might still get her chance,
if the state supreme court rules in her favor. "At some point,"
the official says, "the clock will strike midnight."
If Gore
did manage to change his luck for the better last week, his
advisers will point to the moment on Wednesday when he overruled
them and went before the cameras during the network news broadcasts
to suggest a way out of the Florida swamp. He proposed either
a hand recount in the disputed Democratic counties, or a hand
recount statewide; if Bush agreed, Gore would drop the legal
challenges and abide by the result. The plan didn't take -
Bush rejected it three hours later, seeing it as a sign that
Gore had lost faith in his legal strategy and believing that
both of Gore's options would give the Democrat an advantage.
But it made Gore look statesmanlike at a time when Bush was
portraying him as an election stealer. "This is about much
more than what happens to me or my opponent," he said. "It
is about our democracy."
Gore had
been mulling the idea since the weekend, but it wasn't until
Wednesday afternoon that he told his aides he was ready to
do it. When an adviser was summoned to Gore's residence that
day, he found an argument under way. Lieberman was there,
along with speechwriter Eli Attie and consultants Carter Eskew
and Bob Shrum, and some were trying to talk Gore out of it.
"People were saying, ŒIs this the right moment to do this?
We could wait until tomorrow, see what the situation is then.'
He said, ŒFor me, it's the right moment, and I want to do
it, so we're doing it.'" Gore talked to the lawyers in Florida
and alerted what an adviser describes as "major people in
the party." He dictated a version of the speech, and Shrum,
Eskew and Attie cleaned it up. Then he broke into all the
evening newscasts - and caught Bush flat-footed. To make sure
the editorial pages realized how bold he had been, Gore started
phoning them as soon as his broadcast was finished. He called
Miami Herald editorial-page editor Tom Fiedler and said, "Hi,
Tom. This is Al Gore."
"Who is
this really?"
"It's really
Al Gore."
"No, it
isn't."
"Wait, let
me put Tipper on." After Tipper convinced Fiedler, Gore came
back on the line. "I nearly hung up on you," Fiedler told
him. "Has anyone done that to you yet?"
"Only the
L.A. Times."
While Gore
was on the phone to Fiedler, Bush was on the phone to Baker
in Florida and then to the communications team in Austin.
They all agreed that he needed to respond personally - and
fast. But since Bush was at the ranch and needed to rush back
to Austin, he let Gore's words hang in the air for three opinion-shaping
hours. After a high-speed, 90-minute motorcade ride into Austin,
he spent less than an hour in the mansion. He met with Cheney,
Evans, Rove, Hughes and others, going over the statement they
had prepared for him. Then he delivered it. "The outcome of
this election will not be the result of deals or efforts to
mold public opinion," he said. "(It) will be determined by
the votes and by the law." He was back in the limo less than
15 minutes after he finished. The pro-Bush demonstrators who
had gathered outside the mansion gates (holding signs like
kiss my dimpled chad) were deflated by the brevity of the
visit. They broke up and went home soon after Bush's motorcade
sped away.
At that
moment and for most of the past week, Bush seemed like one
of those mysterious Soviet leaders of the pre-Gorbachev era:
much was said and done in his name and under his authority,
but the man himself was barely seen or heard. Since the morning
after the stillborn election, Austin's strategy was to have
Bush be the victor who must patiently tolerate a few technicalities.
But Gore's plan to chip away at that notion has had an effect.
It helped that Gore won the popular vote. And the Gore message
- count all the votes - may have been expedient, but it was
also simple. Bush's response wasn't: We can't trust people
to count the votes fairly, he said; and that just didn't sound
right coming from a man who spent a year talking about how
much he trusts the people. To compound the problem, it emerged
that in 1997 Bush signed a law saying that in close Texas
elections, manual recounts are preferable to electronic recounts;
Texas law even specifies that hanging and dimpled chads -
punch-card holes still partly attached to the ballot or merely
dented - should be counted. Gore would be delighted to abide
by Texas rules in Florida. MORE>>
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November 27,
2000 | NO. 47
U
N I T E D S T A T E S
COVER:
One Nation, Under Chad
In the murkiness of Florida, amid bickering about bits of paper, will
the next President be decided in the margins of error?
THE
CANDIDATES: Tales from the War Rooms
The inside story of the battles to take the White House
VIEWPOINT:
Will Defeat Be Good for the Democrats?
Jeff Greenfield speculates on political expediency
THE
COURTS: Where Will It All End?
Adam Cohen on judges, briefs and supreme decisions
VOTING:
A Map for the Electoral Labyrinth
Richard Lacayo on the morass-and ways to get out of it
S
O U T H P A C I F I C
INDONESIA:
Trouble on the Border
The first pictures from a West Papuan separatist training camp
Viewpoint:
The rebels' presence in P.N.G. could hurt Australia
T
H E A R T S
BOOKS:
Frank Moorhouse
brings his lively League of Nations chronicle to a close
Barbara Kingsolver
returns to her roots
CINEMA:
Girlfight's Michelle Rodriguez, a knockout talent
MUSIC:
The rich afterlife of Everlast Soul Sister Mumba One
TRAVELER'S
ADVISORY
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