Friday, 16 November 2001 : "Post stuff"

It turns out [Gore] would have been best served by doing the right thing and demanding a full, statewide recount of all 175,000 undervotes and overvotes. The Gore side will assert, correctly, that it faced tough political and legal hurdles in getting a full recount. But that should have been its goal -- for substantive and, we now learn, practical reasons. As the Palm Beach Post, a partner in the recount, wrote: "If Gore had demanded and been granted recounts applying standards many Republicans said they would accept, he would have been president."

The media recount also shows that Bush's lieutenants did him a disservice by obstructing the recounts Gore sought. If Bush had kept his lawyers and demonstrators tightly leashed and simply acceded to Gore's limited requests, the election would have been decided much sooner, much more cleanly -- and in Bush's favor. Although neither side knew it at the time, each did its candidate more harm than good by playing hardball.