成人论坛

Al Gore was the sitting Vice President, a practiced politician with strong policy views and massive national name recognition. In 2000, he ran to replace fellow Democrat, Bill Clinton, who was stepping down after being President since 1993. His opponent was Texas governor George W Bush, the son of Bill Clinton's predecessor, George HW Bush.

The Democrat side was initially optimistic; with the state of the economy after Clinton's 8 year presidency leaving them hopeful that people would vote for more of the same. Gore's opponent seemed politically inexperienced and gaffe prone, focusing his campaign on a narrower subset of evangelical voters, while Gore fought a more traditional national campaign.

However, on Election night in November 2000, everyone was shocked when the election came down to a knife edge. To win, Gore would need to carry Florida. Bush was declared the winner there on election night - but eventually by a margin of fewer than 2,000 votes. What followed was a flurry of emergency recounts and ferociously fought court cases over which votes would be recounted and whether some ballots would be discounted.

This fight took over a month, and eventually went to the Supreme Court, where the narrowest possible decision handed the Presidency to Bush. In a famous concession speech, Vice President Gore said he was standing aside "for the sake of our unity of the people and the strength of our democracy".

Kirsty Wark reunites figures from both sides of one of the US' most bitter electoral battles which, despite Gore's urgings, would set the stage for a modern era of deeper partisanship and contested elections.

This week's guests are:

Elaine Kamarck and Carter Eskew, policy advisors to Al Gore
Ted Olson, lead attorney to George W. Bush
Benjamin Ginsberg, national council to the Bush campaign
Jeffrey Toobin, journalist and author

Producers: Robert Nicholson and John Rogers
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for 成人论坛 Radio 4