Gore Faces Emotional Election Saga

By Sandra Sobieraj Associated Press Writer Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2000; 6:43 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON –– For Al Gore, the daily roulette wheel of election-saga emotion seemed to teeter Tuesday on the line separating red from black.

Publicly, the vice president showed a steely ire as he sought to place blame for the drawn-out presidential election in George W. Bush's lap.

Gore called a news conference – a rare event – on the lawn of the vice presidential residence. He rapped Bush for rejecting his proposed expedited schedule for resolving his court challenge of the Florida presidential vote.

Gore fumed that the result would be "two weeks of additional court proceedings and additional hearings.

"I believe this is a time to count every vote and not to run out the clock. This is not a time for delay, obstruction and procedural roadblocks." He noted pointedly that Bush was the first to file lawsuits over the Nov. 7 balloting.

But some of Gore's closest associates said he privately battles frustration and dread that time will run out before his arguments against the accuracy of Florida's count are fully heard and weighed in court.

One person who has been with Gore as he oversees legal and political strategy from his mansion within the gated Naval Observatory described the senator's son and career politician as "a lost soul" consumed by the struggle for his political future.

Gore, a longtime Washington loner who does not schmooze, has strained at times to project a sociable geniality.

He and running mate Joseph Lieberman and their wives had lunch Monday at a restaurant popular with tourists. The week before, they double-dated over margaritas.

Other times, he tries to show a businesslike confidence that he has an administration to assemble.

Gore extended Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers an unusual last-minute invitation to lunch on Tuesday, inviting news cameras in for just the slice of time between the pouring of the iced tea and the serving of the hamburgers.

Gore is widely expected to ask Summers to stay on in any Gore administration. But after setting up the Cabinet-making image, he contradicted it.

It was only lunch and a chitchat on the economy with "a close friend and close adviser," he said. "I don't think it's right for me to be offering people jobs."

Heartened by election night numbers that showed he won the popular vote nationally by some 200,000 votes, Gore has become emboldened as that margin has grown to exceed 300,000 votes. He believes those numbers give his contest legitimacy, said another close adviser, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

The adviser said Gore is flabbergasted that Americans show "no outrage over an election being stolen" in Florida.

Instead, several polls suggested Monday that people want the ordeal to end and Gore to concede.

But Gore said Tuesday: "I'm quite sure that the polls don't matter in this, because it's a legal question."

Hours later, an NBC poll, the first to measure reaction to Gore's televised speech Monday night defending his vote challenge, offered a mood tonic: The country was evenly split on whether Gore should give up or fight on.

He squinted into the sun to field other questions. He said he was contesting the tally in Florida's heavily Democratic Miami-Dade county – and two others – but not Republican-leaning areas because that's where the counting mistakes were concentrated.

"One thing to remember is that the old and cheap, outdated machinery is usually found in areas with populations that are of lower income, minorities, seniors on fixed incomes," Gore said.

He declined to weigh in on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's contention that black Florida voters were intimidated in violation of the Civil Rights Act.

The last question Gore took: "Are you going to win?"

"I hope so," he said.

Gore Faces Emotional Election Saga

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), November 28, 2000

Answers

The adviser said Gore is flabbergasted that Americans show "no outrage over an election being stolen" in Florida.

What is this guy dreaming??!! From my vantage point, the airwaves and internet are fairly boiling with outrage. The point that the Gorinch keeps missing, and it's a key one, is that the outrage is directed at HIM for attempting to steal the election.

Dan V.

-- Jimmy Splinters (jsplinters@earthlink.net), November 29, 2000.