George W looked nervous but calm, giving a quick thumbs-up to reporters before ducking inside. His father and mother were at his side.Just 50 minutes later, however, with the networks giving Florida to his rival, the Bushes barrelled straight back out again and returned to the governor’s mansion Visibly shaken, they said nothing. Their dinner was left untouched.”He preferred to be at home,” a family friend, Gordon Johndroe, said of the candidate.At 8.30, the Bushes allowed reporters a glimpse of themselves, sitting slumped in armchairs around a fireplace. A quietly defiant George W said he did not believe the returns in Florida or Pennsylvania, also chalked up by Gore.At the same time, he seemed to be resigning himself to defeat “My whole future isn’t on the line,” he said.

“I’m not worried about me getting through it.” He suggested he was more worried about how his parents would take the noble efforts of their beloved son if they were not ultimately successful.And that was the last we saw for more than 16 hours. The night brought no victory speech, and what messages there were to give were delivered by underlings. Yesterday lunchtime, Mr Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney expressed confidence that they would eventually win. The Restoration is far from dead, but the celebrations have been put on ice for now.. Americans woke up yesterday incredulous to learn that the tightest run presidential race in decades was still all to play for. “Am I dreaming?” said Mary Houle, a supporter of Vice-President Al Gore, as she stopped to buy bagels and coffee on her way to work in Springfield Massachussetts.

Americans woke up yesterday incredulous to learn that the tightest run presidential race in decades was still all to play for. “Am I dreaming?” said Mary Houle, a supporter of Vice-President Al Gore, as she stopped to buy bagels and coffee on her way to work in Springfield Massachussetts.
“I stayed up until 2am. I didn’t go to bed until the television networks said Mr Bush won. I was so down I didn’t even turn the radio on until I was driving in to work, because I didn’t want to hear Mr Bush. And then I find out that’s it’s not over after all,” she said.In the streets of Washington DC office workers expressed their surprise.

But there was also anger at the confusion generated by the TV news networks.Others railed against the electoral-college voting system, which could mean that despite a convincing majority of popular votes Al Gore will not take the White House.”Something is fishy. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” said Cara Hunter, a 40-year-old African-American boutique manager.Ms Hunter called Mr Bush a “puppet who can’t deliver.” “Bush has no experience in Congress, no experience on a national level or globally, and pretty much no experience at all,” she said.”It’s crazy,” said Edward Kiley, a 52-year-old lawyer. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”The thin margin between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, Mr Kiley added, would make it difficult to get any legislation passed.Jonathan Morgan, a 29-year-old marketing coordinator, went to bed at shortly after midnight when the election was still up in the air.”It was a great election, and it still is,” he said, forecasting a Bush victory, thanks to absentee votes from US overseas military personnel, who typically vote Republican.But he criticised the American media for putting out early results and then retracting them. “News channels should have waited for final results,” he said.Chris Suever, 43, left her television on through the night. “It’s a little frustrating that we still don’t know the winner,” said Suever, who also thought it wrong that the popular and electoral college votes might not match “I expected Bush to take Pennsylvania.