“Just moments ago,” Vice President Al Gore said in a speech to the nation exactly 25 years ago today, “I spoke with George W. Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the United States.” On the previous day, December 12, 2000, the Supreme Court decided the epic case of Bush v. Gore, which, by a vote of five to four, ended the presidential recount in Florida. Throughout the 36-day battle to decide the election, Gore behaved with the same kind of restraint and dignity that he displayed in his concession. Who knew, in that more innocent time, that there was a very different way for a losing presidential candidate to behave?
After his defeat, Gore retreated from politics, focusing instead on his work on climate change, which earned him a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. His relatively low profile, along with his refusal to re-litigate the 2000 election, has served to obscure what a good case he had that he actually won. He did win the popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, and though Florida was ultimately awarded to Bush by 537 votes, and with it the Electoral College by a tally of 271 to 270, we’ll never know what the full recount would have revealed, because the Supreme Court shut it down.
