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By SARA FRITZ
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 15, 2000
WASHINGTON -- Like most savvy politicians, Sen. John Breaux is not especially concerned about the daily ups and downs in the Florida legal battle that will decide the winner of the 2000 presidential election. He is keeping his eye on the endgame.
As the Louisiana Democrat sees it, the American public will accept either George W. Bush or Al Gore as the next president of the United States as long as the loser does too.
"The most important speech of the campaign is not going to be made by the winner, it's going to be made by the loser," Breaux said Tuesday.
In other words, the process of deciding the winner of the Nov. 7 election does not have to be perfect or acceptable to everyone. But it has to be fair and decisive enough to allow the loser to bow out gracefully and make a statement pledging to honor his opponent's claim on the White House.
Recent public opinion polls bear out Breaux's point of view.
According to one by the Gallup organization for CNN and USA Today, about 80 percent of Americans would accept either Gore or Bush as the legitimate winner if that is the outcome of the current process unfolding in Florida. A majority also told pollsters they are not overly concerned by the delay.
Considering how narrowly the election has divided political sentiment in the country, these widely held positive views come as welcome news to those who might be concerned about the stability of the American system of government in the wake of a ballot count that exposed so many flaws.
"What has been heartening is the patience of the American people," said David Winston, a Republican Party pollster and strategist. "Not one shot has been fired. The American people are calm -- a lot more calm, in fact, than the stock market. The vast majority of them got up on Wednesday morning, went to work and appeared ready to accept whatever happens."
Although both Bush and Gore have been firmly in command of the bitter partisan legal battle in Florida over the past week, they, too, are as aware as Breaux that the process cannot end in rancor. That is why the two candidates have so far made only statesmanlike remarks, leaving it to their surrogates to exchange invective.
Indeed, Gore's statement on Monday was so high-minded that it sounded almost disingenuous.
"What is at stake is more important than who wins the presidency," he said. "What is a stake is the integrity of our democracy, and making sure the will of the people is expressed and accurately received."
Certainly, the vice president was not suggesting that he no longer cares who wins. But he did mean to send a strong, reassuring message to American voters, investors and foreign leaders that even while he pursues a determined legal challenge to the Florida secretary of state's ruling, he is prepared to abide by an unfavorable result.
Gore also has let it be known that if he loses, he is prepared to run again in 2004. He figures that his party cannot deny him the nomination next time, particularly if he turns out to win the popular vote.
A career politician, Gore has also demonstrated in the past that he knows how to bow out gracefully when necessary and preserve his options for the future.
After losing the New York primary during his first bid for the presidency in 1988, he quickly quit the race and mended his fences with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, his opponent in that contest. Gore and Jackson have been allied ever since and, coincidentally, Jackson was one of the first Democrats to rush into Florida to help last Wednesday morning.
If Bush's statements have not been as selfless, it is because he still expects to be the winner. And nothing that happened Tuesday could dissuade him from that conviction.
David W. Rohde, a political scientist at Michigan State University, said the court ruling upholding the secretary of state's 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for certifying the results could be viewed only as good news for the Bush camp. "Now that the Bush people have gotten what they want in the court, chances are they will win," Rohde said.
The judge's ruling effectively ended efforts on both sides to negotiate a settlement between Bush and Gore.
On Monday, the Gore camp let it be known that the vice president would foreswear any future court challenge if he could get Bush to agree to a hand recount of all votes cast in Florida. Predictably, Bush rejected that proposal.
On Tuesday, the Bush camp offered to accept the results to date of the manual count if Gore would accept the 5 p.m. deadline -- a proposal Gore could not accept.
Although this public back-and-forth did not produce a negotiated settlement between them, it did serve to narrow their options. All extraneous ballot issues are now thought to be off the table, at least as far as the endgame is concerned.
As a result, there is every reason to think that the nation will know the winner soon after the deadline for counting overseas ballots at midnight Friday.
If the loser needs to make a convincing statement at that point to persuade the public to support the outcome, as Sen. Breaux has observed, the winner will have his own reasons for being gracious.
With only a razor-thin victory and an almost evenly divided Congress, the winner -- be it Bush or Gore -- will not be able to govern without the cooperation of the other party.