U.S. Election of 2000

▪ 2001

by David C. Beckwith The U.S.'s tumultuous experiment with democracy over two centuries has produced a colourful record of conflict and decision, but the presidential election of 2000 will rank near the top of any list. Time magazine, exaggerating only slightly, dubbed it “the wildest election in history.” It produced the country's fourth president who had lost the popular vote, and the first president who owed his victory directly to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. As the year began, presumptive nominees Vice Pres. Al Gore (Gore, Albert A., Jr. ) and Texas Gov. George W. Bush (Bush, George W. ) (see Biographies) were targets of spirited primary challenges from political mavericks. Former U.S. senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey failed to wean away any of the liberal Democratic pillars backing the vice president—organized labour, minorities, and women activists. Bradley lost the New Hampshire primary by a narrow 52–48% margin and never again came close to winning a state.

      U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona was a far more serious problem for Bush, whose tightly scripted message and regal campaigning satisfied party regulars but failed to excite less-partisan voters. Bush had prepared for a challenge from the conservative wing that never materialized. Instead, the moderate McCain rolled through New Hampshire on a bus dubbed the Straight Talk Express, charming journalists, selling campaign finance reform, and racking up a devastating 19-point victory. The reeling Bush forces then took off the gloves in South Carolina, employing surrogates to question war hero McCain's commitment to conservative values and party principles. The backlash from Bush's unpretty 11-point South Carolina win, however, helped carry McCain to victory the following week in Michigan, where independents and Democrats voted in large numbers. By the time the Bush campaign righted itself and ran out the clock, Bush's once-substantial advantage over Gore in funding and polls was gone.

      Political scientists were unanimous that, given peace and prosperity, the incumbent vice president should win easily. Gore suffered, however, from a pedantic personal style and his association with Pres. Bill Clinton. Bush, by contrast, was widely viewed as personable and attractive, but Democrats successfully raised concerns: did he have the experience and intellectual heft to be president?

      The GOP convention in Philadelphia was staged as a paean to ethnic diversity, a visual reminder of Bush's outreach to minorities and his “compassionate conservatism” campaign theme. That helped produce a double-digit poll lead for Bush. Gore countered with an energetic populist speech at the Democratic gathering in Los Angeles, his stage entrance punctuated by a long and passionate kiss with his wife, Tipper, that underlined a contrast with Clinton. Bush's lead soon disappeared, and Gore surged 10 points ahead.

      In September Bush's campaign tried to scuttle appearances scheduled by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, provoking outrage from journalists weary of carefully staged campaign events. Bush was forced to reverse field, the episode seeming to confirm his lack of confidence in any matchup with the more experienced Gore. The turning point in the campaign may have been the first debate in early October. Bush delivered a competent and affable performance, exceeding expectations, while Gore repeatedly interrupted, demanded extra time, sighed audibly, and grimaced while Bush was talking. After this overbearing spectacle the polls shifted yet again, with the Republican gradually retaking a substantial lead.

      Bush, however, appeared to run out of gas at the end. In the last week of the campaign, he was thrown on the defensive when news of a 1976 arrest for drunk driving surfaced, when he appeared to deny that Social Security was a government program, and when left-leaning supporters of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader (see Biographies (Nader, Ralph )) began to return to the Democratic fold. The result was, as one wag put it, a tie, a coin flip where the coin landed on its edge.

      On election night, in a debacle for television journalism, all commercial networks declared that Gore had won Florida. Within hours, though, they had placed Florida back in the undecided column, then awarded the state and the election to Bush, and then put the state and the election back in doubt. Bush's lead appeared to be as narrow as 400 votes out of 6.1 million cast in the state.

      Exit polls showed deep splits in the electorate. Gore eventually won the national popular vote by a margin of more than 500,000. Bush won among men, 53–42%, but Gore prevailed with women, 54–43%. Despite Bush's outreach, only about 9% of African Americans sided with the Republican. Bush won virtually the entire heartland of the country, while Gore won the West Coast and most northeastern and upper Midwestern states. The overall result was close because, aided by modern polling, both candidates had successfully presented a moderate platform that appealed to the vast American centre. Nonetheless, many voters still had doubts about personal qualities; a common evaluation was that “neither man made the sale.”

      On November 8 both candidates immediately began flooding Florida with hundreds of lawyers and political operatives. Democrats challenged Bush's lead by starting recounts in several urban counties, claiming that inexpensive punch-card voting devices had failed to record intended Gore ballots. County officials were soon seen on television holding up ballots, eyeing “chads” with one, two, or three corners removed or searching for indentations that might reveal voter intent. Both sides replaced principle with expediency. Republicans, ordinarily states' rights advocates, eyed the Democratic Florida judiciary and began appealing to federal courts. Democrats moved to disqualify hundreds of military ballots from overseas on technicalities even as they vowed that “all votes must be counted.”

      Nearly 50 individual lawsuits were filed challenging aspects of the Florida election. The Florida Supreme Court (all seven members nominated by Democratic governors) twice extended the recount process, saying that protecting the right to vote was more critical than observing a legislative-set timetable. The U.S. Supreme Court (seven of nine members nominated by Republican presidents) surprised virtually all experts by stepping in and overturning both rulings. In their final decision, seven justices declared the lack of uniform standards defining voter intent amounted to a denial of equal protection of the laws. That stopped the recount and effectively decided the contest—35 days after election day.

      At year's end the national economy was weakening, and polls showed that a substantial minority of citizens questioned Bush's legitimacy. Technically, Congress remained in Republican hands, but in reality it was deadlocked, divided almost evenly between the parties. The new president prepared to enter office with the weakest mandate to govern of any administration in more than a century.

David C. Beckwith is vice president of National Cable Television Association.

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