Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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The Undecided States of America

By Thomas Gorguissian

Politicians are up to their dirty tricks, candidate henchmen are spinning more accusations and lawyers, as usual, are manipulating the whole mess. Instead of putting an end to the antics, already ugly US elections have only gotten uglier after the votes were counted. Emotions are running high; jokes have started to get bitter. And so the gridlock continues.

Republican candidate George W Bush, who still leads Gore for the crucial 25 electoral votes in the state of Florida, has vehemently claimed that the manual recount called by Gore is a travesty of election justice. "We now have clear and compelling evidence from eyewitnesses that this manual recount process is fundamentally flawed, and is no longer recounting, but is distorting, reinventing and miscounting the true intentions of the voters of Florida," warned Bush's campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes this week. Bush's lead over Gore in Florida widened to 930 after the overseas absentee ballots were counted on Saturday.

Tempers rose, however, when the Bush camp accused Democrats of trying to invalidate hundreds of absentee ballots from military personnel from overseas. Hughes used the opportunity to attack Gore once again: "No one who aspires to be commander-in-chief should seek to unfairly deny the votes of the men and women he would seek to command." The response from the other side came fast. Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said the vice president's campaign "was saddened and disappointed by the fact that the Bush camp has suddenly decided to inject raw, crass, partisan politics into a situation that ought to be guided by the laws of our land." Not letting the chance go by for an additional plug, Lehane added, "The Gore campaign wants the will of the people to be reflected accurately and completely, which will be guaranteed by a manual recount."

A day later Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman put in his two cents: "It seems to be that they're doing everything they can to stop the recounting of votes because they're slightly ahead, and they fear that after the recounting they won't be." Lieberman also denied the charges regarding the military absentee ballots.

How long will America wait? Are Americans ready to wait more? And how is it going to end? Those were some of the questions raised as the impasse continued and the identity of America's 43rd president remained unknown. A recent Newsweek poll indicated that 61 per cent of Americans feel that getting the count right should be the priority. That is down from 72 per cent one week ago, but the margin remains decisive and many think that the decline is simply due to fading patience. Despite media claims that people are "losing faith," however, the same poll showed that 62 per cent of Americans say they are "somewhat confident" that the presidential candidate who actually received the most votes in Florida will ultimately be declared the winner. But sceptics are more ruthless, drawing up worst-case scenarios in which the counting and recounting drones on until the new year.

President Bill Clinton, still clinging to office with all the more gusto, seems happy to jeer from the sidelines along with the rest of the country. In Vietnam this week for a historic visit, Clinton tried to downplay the crisis back home and calm worries about the future of the White House. Before leaving Hanoi, he joked about the ongoing struggle by saying, "I have to go home to see if there's a new president."

In an interview with John King of CNN Clinton said, "This is not a crisis in the American system of government, because it will come to an end. It will come to an end in plenty of time for the new president to take the oath of office." It's the latter part that Clinton seems most concerned about. At a victory celebration for first lady and Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton the president was reportedly happy to offer up a different solution: "If those two boys can't make up their minds," he was quoted as saying, "well then, I'll just stay."

Some of the most level-headed analysis of the situation, however, came from Ivo Daalder and Philip Gordon, senior fellows at The Brookings Institute. In an article published in Le Monde, the two tried to explain to the outside world that this election shows the strength, not weakness, of American democracy. "Some in the United States -- not least Bush's point-man, former Secretary of State James Baker -- have even fuelled these fears, charging that further delay in knowing the identity of America's next president leaves the world in a dangerous state of uncertainty and has roiled financial markets around the globe. These charges are not only unfounded, but they are themselves potentially dangerous."

The article offered strong evidence that there is no reason to believe the US is on shaky ground. "In the past, presidents have not hesitated to use the power of their office during this transition period. Indeed, during the last transition -- from Bush to Clinton -- a defeated president did not hesitate to commit 30,000 troops to Somalia, sign two major international agreements (banning chemical weapons and opening free trade in North America), and negotiate and sign the START II treaty reducing US and Russian nuclear forces. The world can expect Clinton to be no less prepared to defend American interests, or deal with any crises, in the remaining weeks, days and hours of his presidency."

But are these arguments enough to counter the anxieties of a dumbfounded American public egged on by detractors and the Republican campaign? And what about the doubt expressed in the outside world? Are these arguments comparable to others, or do they just fit Americans?

Meanwhile, Florida, the Sunshine State of six million voters and 25 electoral college votes, has become the epicentre of all this American melodrama. The invasion of lawyers that has taken place in the last two weeks is remarkable. The last time Florida's legal presence reached anywhere near its present collection was in August 1996, when the American Bar Association held its annual meeting at Disney World.

Early this week, no one knew how long it would take or how it will end, but as New York Daily News Washington columnist Lars-Erik Nelson noted, "The first task or challenge the new president will face is legitimising his own victory."

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Democracy laid bare- 16 - 22 November 2000
See US Election 2000- 16 - 22 November 2000
Can you see a difference?- 2 - 8 November 2000
A voice crying in the wilderness- 24 - 30 August 2000

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