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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pullin-GS who wrote (96862)	12/1/2000 9:46:30 AM
From: The Street	Respond to of 769670

Gore would win Florida recount, Clinton says 'America will be embarrassed ... if votes are not counted' Hilary Mackenzie Southam News WASHINGTON - In his most partisan statement to date on the Florida election saga, Bill Clinton said yesterday that Al Gore would be the clear winner if all the votes there were counted. "This all could have been resolved earlier if all the votes in Florida had been recounted as the Vice-President suggested," Mr. Clinton said in an exchange with Southam News at a Washington book signing. The battle for Florida -- now in its fourth week since the Nov. 7 U.S. election -- is bogged down in the courts. As public pressure mounts for Gore to concede defeat and hand the presidency to Republican George W. Bush, Mr. Clinton asked Americans to be patient. "The most important thing is to get the story out," said the President. "If the votes were counted Al Gore would carry the state." He added: "America will be embarrassed in front of the world if the votes are not counted." During the off-the-cuff exchange in front of a group of supporters, the President passionately dissected the minutiae of the contested votes that could rob his Vice-president of Florida's 25 electoral college votes. In his own tally, he has Mr. Gore winning Florida by at least 100 votes and then you "don't even have the butterfly ballots [which are in dispute] from Palm Beach. "Or the Holocaust survivors who supposedly cast their vote for the anti-Semitic Pat Buchanan. "Or the blacks voting for the first time who were given the wrong instructions and double-punched," he said. Florida's 25 electoral college votes would give Mr. Gore a total of 292 and make him the uncontested winner of the presidency. Mr. Bush stands at 246 votes, 24 short of the 270 needed to win a majority. Mr. Clinton seemed unfazed by the controversy swirling around the election. "Let the story unfold," he said in veiled criticism of Mr. Bush's rush to the White House. According to Florida law, the electors have to be selected by Dec. 12 and forwarded to Washington by Dec. 18 when the constitution says the president will be chosen. In a reflective note on his personal future, Clinton said: "I want to do something which is dear to my heart, which I am passionate about, but where I won't be underfoot of the next president." Responding to the warmth of the crowd, Mr. Clinton responded with a mischievous grin: "I may not have been the greatest president but I've had the most fun eight years." On Monday, Mr. Gore made a televised address to the nation saying, "Whatever the outcome, let the people have their say, and let us listen. "This is America. When votes are cast, we count them. We don't arbitrarily set them aside because it's too difficult to count them." Yesterday, asked what the odds were of him becoming president Mr. Gore said, "50-50." "The law is so clear in Florida that the votes are going to have to be counted," he added.