Spin May Be Crucial in Election Battle

Nov. 28, 2000 -- Al Gore is placing his presidential hopes on a series of legal challenges, but the vice president’s chances of moving into the Oval Office may rest equally in the court of public opinion.

Both he and his Republican rival George W. Bush have mounted all-out efforts to sway the public. Bush has the far stronger position with leads in every vote count thus far in the all-important state of Florida. Having been certified as winner of its 25 electoral votes on Sunday, the Texas governor has called for Gore to concede.

Gore has been forced to justify why additional recounts and court battles are necessary, telling the nation Monday night in a televised address that there had not yet been a complete vote count in Florida and that “ignoring votes means ignoring democracy itself.”

But without support from the public and his party, Gore will be unable to keep pressing his lawsuits for the weeks or even months it will take to resolve them, says Howard Gold, a politics professor at Smith College.

“The way public opinion is perceived could determine how this works out,” he says.

Does Certification Spell the End?

Many political analysts agree the certification of the Florida vote Sunday night was a key moment in the post-election battle, placing the burden firmly on Gore to show why he should not give in.

“Public perception has changed with certification,”says Alex Jones, director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy.

An ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll conducted after certification Sunday night found that 60 percent of Americans want Gore to concede, including 26 percent of people who said they were Gore supporters.

Still, the public may be willing to accept that the battle will continue, for now at least, says Jones.

“He’s not worn out the patience of the public yet,” says Jones.

Because the public is thought to frown on using lawyers and lawsuits to win political fights, Gore has an uphill battle to convince America to be patient.

By taking the battle to court, Gore has made that argument more difficult.

“When you insert the word lawyer or lawsuit, it taints the entire process” in the mind of the public, says Matthew Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

Gore’s attorneys filed a motion today to speed up the process of hearing their challenge to the vote count in three Florida counties, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Nassau.

Gore Depending on Party Support

Gore has had the visible support of Democratic Party leaders, who rallied behind him this week. But few among them believe Gore will emerge victorious, and many are standing by Gore largely out of anger at what they see as heavy-handed tactics by the Bush camp.

Gore held a televised conference call Monday with Democratic leaders ofthe House and Senate who assured him that Democrats “have beenentirely supportive” of finding out how everyone voted — eventhough there was some isolating grumbling within the party. At the White House, President Clinton joined Gore’s unity chorus.

Still, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle acknowledged that Democrats are “working against the clock.”

Unless Gore scores a substantive victory in the coming few days, party support will likely melt away, party sources tell ABCNEWS.

Spin City

Meanwhile, the spin battle continues.

Political experts say both sides have largely stuck to a single, simple message, in order to cut through confusion surrounding the election.

“Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of Americans have not sat down and read the Florida election law,” stresses David Menefee-Libey, a politics professor at Pomona College.

Instead, they will form their opinions based upon how that law is interpreted, or spun, by the candidates, their spokespeople, and the media, and on how well each side can “tell a story that makes sense about this election.”

To push their own interpretation of issues ranging from dimpled chads to military absentee ballots to court rulings and street protests, each side has used a steady parade of spokesman, lawyers and political allies.

The Bush camp has struck the more aggressive tone in the battle, experts say, mounting a direct attack on the objectivity of Florida’s Supreme Court after the justices agreed to block certification of Bush last week as the winner in the state.

They also mounted an assault on the Gore team over the issue of overseas military ballots, bringing out three Medal of Honor winners to talk about the importance of counting the votes of servicemen and women overseas.

Democrats early on after the election targeted Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican and co-chairwoman of Bush’s Florida campaign, and accused her of blatantly favoring the Texas governor. Prominent Democrats have also accused their rivals of trying to intimidate officials conducting vote recounts in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.

Decrying the Republican protesters’ tactics, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., told reporters last week that the “whiff of fascism” was in the air.

Trying to Look Like a President

As their surrogates press their charges and counter-charges, Bush and Gore have sought to appear high-minded and statesmanlike over the past three weeks since the voters went to the polls.

Both candidates may be fighting to win the presidency for themselves, but they are in the delicate position of having to justify their efforts as being made for the sake of the greater good of the nation.

If Bush seems too eager to win and wrap up the process, or if people see Gore as a zealot who will never give up the fight, the public’s reaction will be strongly negative.

“I think the American people don’t want their presidents involved in the hand-to-hand-combat of partisan politics,” says Menefee-Libey.

Bush’s best weapon may be simply to press ahead with his transition efforts, says Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group.

“Asking for the keys and starting the transition is deadly for Gore,” he says, because it reinforces the perception that the Bush’s victory is inevitable, and that Gore is only dragging out the process.

In the end, however, spin only goes so far, says Menefee-Libey. Despite shrill rhetoric from both sides warning of attempts to steal the election, he says, “most Americans believe we’ll all be OK.”