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The Democrats, meanwhile, did not like what they saw last week. They did not like the images of Bush surrounded by a government in waiting, all but ordering new White House china. And so their strategy was to fight on three fronts, each with different tactical goals.
The first was the recount, to prevent the immediate certification of the Florida results. The outcome from a hand count could still save the day. There was also the outside chance that the overseas ballots would include enough from Israel to tip the balance to Gore. The second was the public relations war: stoke the anger of African Americans and Jews--for whom disfranchisement strikes a deep chord--throw Austin off balance, keep that transition from getting organized. All this would have useful downstream benefits for the Democrats even if they don't ultimately prevail. The third track was to figure out the legal strategy while the first two tracks bought them time to mull it over.
Gore has a powerful instinct for the endgame, as he has shown in many budget battles, in his handling of Bosnia and above all at the end of his losing presidential bid in 1988. It was a brutal race, but he found a way to end it gracefully. More important than winning, Gore said, was "helping my party, serving my country, knowing when to keep fighting and knowing when I've been licked." Some people close to Gore saw in the results last week a popular mandate for his ideas. These were the people counseling Gore to fight on as long as the cause was just; wait for the last vote to be counted and checked; but then, if Bush retained his edge, lay down the legal sword.
Then Gore could sit back and watch President Bush struggle to move forward in a gruesomely divided Capitol, hoping that four years from now his party could not possibly deny the nomination to the man who had won the popular vote. Two of the three men in American history who won the popular vote only to lose in the Electoral College came back four years later to win in a landslide.
When Gore's father lost his Senate seat in 1970, he ended by saying, "The truth shall rise again." Gore believes the truth is still on his side, and he is a patient man.
Hillary Clinton, however, was losing no time. Her victory in New York was also a piece of history, and not just because she is the first First Lady ever elected to anything. She promised on Friday to back a bill abolishing the Electoral College and providing for direct popular vote for the President--the kind of system that particularly favors candidates from big states. And so the week ended with one dynasty struggling to survive as another was being born--one intergenerational, one intermarital. Both were conceived in pride and nursed on revenge, and you wondered if they might meet one day to clash again.