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Bush reaches out to unite nation

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Five weeks after Election Day, George W. Bush at last laid claim to the presidency Wednesday night with a pledge to ''seize this moment'' and deliver reconciliation and unity to a nation divided. Al Gore exited the tortuously close race, exhorting the nation to put aside partisan rancor and support its new chief executive. A USATODAY/CNN/Gallup poll conducted before Bush's speech showed that 80 percent of those questioned accepted him as the legitimate president.

''I was not elected to serve one party, but to serve one nation,'' the nation's soon-to-be 43rd president told Americans in a nationally televised address from the chamber of the Texas House of Representatives. The Texas governor chose that setting, he said, because he had been able to work there with Democrats and Republicans alike.

''Our nation must rise above a house divided,'' he said hopefully, echoing a reference from Scripture spoken by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Gore went first, delivering his call for national unity in a televised concession. ''May God bless his stewardship of this country,'' the vice president said. Gore, who called Bush to concede shortly before his speech, joked that he had promised not to ''call him back this time,'' a reference to the concession he phoned to Bush on Election Night and later withdrew.

Bush said it had been a ''gracious call'' from Gore, adding, ''I understand how difficult this moment must be'' for him. The two made plans to meet in Washington on Tuesday. Victorious Republicans, in conciliatory and sympathetic tones, prepared to claim control of both the White House and Congress for the first time in more than 45 years, while Democrats talked ominously of deep partisan schisms to condemn the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that pushed Gore from the race.

''This might be the end of a campaign, but it's just the beginning of a much longer, difficult process,'' Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said. In a televised address that lasted less than 10 minutes, Gore mixed words of unity with the unmistakable message that he felt wronged by the Supreme Court ruling that stopped the Florida recount and prompted his concession. ''While I strongly disagree with the court's decision, I accept it,'' he said. ''I accept the finality of this outcome.''

He allowed there would be time for disagreements down the road, but said ''now is the time to recognize that that which unites us is greater than that which divides us.'' Leaving the White House office that he soon will vacate, Gore was greeted outside by cheering supporters who chanted ''Gore in Four,'' a hopeful wish for his political revival in 2004. Bush moved quickly into the breach, asking Texas Democratic House speaker to introduce him for his national address. He told campaign chairman Don Evans to reach out to Gore chairman William Daley - a move that led to the scheduling of the two rivals' meeting next week. And he dusted off transition plans laid dormant by the legal wrangling, as aides reminded reporters that a Democrat or two were certain to join the Bush administration.

In his first act as president-elect, Bush will attend a ''prayer and hope'' church service Thursday in Austin, spokeswoman Karen Hughes said. ''He wants to start this on a message of prayer and healing,'' she said. Each move was calculated to heal divisions caused by the brutal, five-week election postscript. His mandate in doubt, Bush already is being urged to curb his legislative agenda, particularly the $1.3 trillion program of tax cuts over 10 years. Reacting to Democratic criticism, Justice Clarence Thomas told high school students that the court is not influenced by the politics of the presidency or Congress.

''We happen to be in the same city but we might as well be on entirely different planets,'' said Thomas, nominated to the bench by Bush's father. ''We have no axes to grind.'' A few miles away, the doors to a government-run transition office were readied to be open to Bush by the General Services Administration. A formal ceremony was scheduled for Thursday. Florida's GOP-led Legislature also awaited word from Gore, deferring plans to appoint a backup slate of state electors loyal to Bush. Gore topped his GOP rival by more than 300,000 votes out of 103 million ballots cast nationwide. But Florida's 25 electoral votes, to be cast Dec. 18 and counted Jan. 6, would give Bush a total of 271 - one more than the 270 required to win the presidency, and four more than Gore.

And thus closed an election for the history books, the closest in 124 years. On Inauguration Day Jan. 20, the Texas governor will become:

- The first presidential candidate since Benjamin Harrison in 1888 (and only the fourth in American history) to lose the national popular vote but win the state electoral contest, thus the White House. Harrison's foe, Grover Cleveland, rebounded to win the presidency in 1893, offering a glimmer of hope for Gore who, at 52, may want to make another run at the White House.

- The nation's second father-son presidential team after John Adams (1791-1801) and John Quincy Adams (1825-1829). Bush has relied on his well-to-do family's connections, both to raise money and build the foundation of a new administration. Andrew Card, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and GOP running mate Dick Cheney held top positions in the first Bush presidency and are slated for senior roles in the second. Cheney visited conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill, telling reporters afterward, ''We're moving forward on the transition.''

Bush may soon join Cheney in the nation's capital; aides said that a trip to Washington next week was being planned, including a courtesy call on President Clinton, congressional Democrats and hopefully a meeting with Gore. Bush has said he hopes to ''seize the moment'' if the courts ruled in his favor. ''Part of seizing the moment is reaching out to the other party, to show his bipartisanship,'' said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer. Advisers said Democrats are under consideration for Cabinet posts, including Sen. John Breaux, D-La. Also mentioned in GOP circles: Rep. Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, former Sens. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., and Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and former Dallas Democratic Party chairman Sandy Kress.

Bush's schedule is in flux, but aides said a presidential-style news conference was likely this week. They debated whether to roll out White House staff and Cabinet appointments or delay the activity while Bush builds an image as a uniter. With the Senate evenly split, the House nearly so and Florida falling to Bush by a near-invisible 537 votes, it was fitting that the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 against recounts in the state - a decision they nine justices knew was tantamount to awarding Bush the White House. Democrats laid down their political markers for 2002, when Congress will be up for grabs, suggesting that wounds inflicted in the recount war will still be grist for the next campaign.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the ''majority has dealt the court a serious blow by taking actions many Americans will consider to be political rather than judicial.'' The party's core constituencies, particularly minorities, seemed the most stung by Gore's defeat. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., called the high court ''a willing tool of the Bush campaign'' that orchestrated ''a velvet legal coup.'' After eight years of Democratic control in the White House, Republicans promised compromise and consensus. ''The long trail that has kept the nation in suspense since November 7th is now over,'' said House Speaker Dennis Hastert. ''Now, as a nation, we must come together.''

Bush claims presidency, pledges reconciliation

Seeks to 'move forward together, as one nation, indivisible,' says nation must rise above division.

Full coverage

Gore says it's time to go

WASHINGTON — Al Gore's concession speech Wednesday night ended the most protracted and bitter presidential election in more than a century and left the victor, George W. Bush, to govern a divided country. Gore, 52, used both earnestness and humor as he sought to soothe the nation, and particularly his supporters who remain bitter. "I call on all Americans — I particularly urge all who stood with us — to unite behind our next president," he said in a speech televised nationally from his ceremonial office next door to the White House he had hoped to occupy. A USATODAY/CNN/Gallup poll conducted before Gore's speech showed that 59 percent of those questioned wanted the vice president to concede the race rather than merely withdraw.

"This is America. Just as we fight hard when the stakes are high, we close ranks and come together when the contest is done," Gore said. Although he strongly disagreed with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended his hopes, he said, he accepted it.

Just before the 9 p.m. ET speech, Gore telephoned Bush to concede the race and offer congratulations. It was Gore's second concession. The first , made in a phone call to Bush on election night, was withdrawn a short time later. "I promised that I wouldn't call him back this time," Gore cracked.

Bush, who at age 54 will be the nation's 43rd president, spoke less than an hour later from the chamber of the Democratic-controlled Texas House of Representatives. He called for national unity. The location symbolized the bipartisanship that he made a hallmark as governor.

"I am optimistic that we can change the tone of Washington, D.C.," Bush said. "I know America wants reconciliation and unity. I know Americans want progress. And we must seize this moment and deliver."

But the healing won't be easy. The reaction from Democrats, particularly black elected officials, was bitter, and the divide in the government and the electorate is deeper than it has been in generations.

"There is all this nice talk about how it will lead to a new era of bipartisanship, but tempers will be short," political analyst Rhodes Cook said. "There is a sense that people are aggrieved. They aren't happy as a result of this election."

Gore's decision to drop out came Wednesday morning, 12 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court, split along ideological lines, blocked further recounting of disputed ballots in Florida.

Those ballots represented Gore's last hope of erasing Bush's narrow margin in the state that was the key to the presidency.

The high court's pronouncement came like an exclamation point at the end of a too-long sentence. It wrote a close to two years of campaigning and to a five-week overtime period of legal wrangling.

At the time the count was halted, an unofficial Associated Press tally found that Bush's lead in Florida had dropped to a bare 177 votes — one-tenth the margin on Election Day. But history may record that Bush actually won by the margin of the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision.

The dramatic developments capped a political season that many felt already had gone on too long, stretching back into the hazy mists of memory. It was hard to recall, for example, Bush's first steps to raise money for his nomination bid in the summer of 1998, or Gore's early struggles to extricate himself from the scandals of his boss, Bill Clinton.

It was the fourth time in history that a president won office without carrying the popular vote, and the first time in 112 years. Bush, who trailed Gore nationally by 337,000 votes, becomes the second son of a president to gain the White House, joining John Quincy Adams.

The election pitted two Ivy League sons of political privilege, one trying to redress his father's bitter defeat in 1992 by Clinton and Gore, the other seeking to take the job for which he had spent a lifetime preparing. Their post-election battle spawned dozens of lawsuits and exposed a dark underside to the nation's electoral process that few Americans knew about.

"This election is clearly an instant classic," Cook said. Since popular voting for president began nationally in 1824, just six of 45 White House elections have been decided by less than 1 percentage point.

But just five days before the Electoral College meets to formally select Bush as president, it was clear that the bitterness of the past five weeks would not fade immediately. Bush will be trying to lead the most divided government in generations. The Senate is split 50-50, and the national popular vote for the House was even closer than the vote for president -- a GOP advantage of 84,000 votes out of 78.8 million cast in contested races.

"It's going to be difficult to rally a strong level of support for a new administration," said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, a North Dakota Democrat. "The circumstances of this election will give Bush less initial leeway than most presidents have."

The tone was particularly resentful among some black elected leaders. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., a Democrat from Illinois, said halting the vote recount reminded him of a Third World coup d'etat, adding: "I see it as undermining the legitimacy of a President Bush, should he be elected without all of the votes being counted."

But Republicans sounded a more hopeful note. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., called on both sides to go to work on "common-sense" legislation. "Our system has endured a great trial, and the wounds that have come from the passions of partisanship must begin to heal for the good of the country," Hastert said. Senate GOP leader Trent Lott took heart in what he termed Bush's "calm demeanor and reassuring manner of the last few weeks."

The federal General Services Administration, which has been reserving 90,000 square feet of office space near the White House and a $5.3 million transition budget for the winner, said it was prepared to turn over the keys — and the money — today.

In Tallahassee, the state Senate, which had planned to convene Wednesday to consider a resolution appointing the state's 25 electors as an insurance policy for Bush, recessed after hearing of Gore's concession plans.

"We may have reached the point of finality," Senate President John McKay said.