Vice president concedes, then takes it back

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Massive crowds roared "recount, we want Gore," in Nashville last night, as the election result was deemed too close to call. A crowd that sobbed over defeat just moments before cheered with hope when supporters learned Al Gore still had a chance. And just as the vice president stalled in his limousine, refusing to speak before learning the numbers, the crowd remained steadfast into the early hours. Gore had called Bush to congratulate him and was scheduled to make a concession speech sometime after the Republican was declared the winner at 2:17 a.m. But after hearing the razor-thin margins, he retracted the partial concession. As of 4 a.m. this morning, the Associated Press had not yet called the race, saying that it hinged on still uncounted and likely Democratic votes in Florida. If the margin is within .5 percent the state will have to do a recount. The Gore supporters were flung into an emotional headspin all night. This roller-coaster feeling was fueled in part by TV networks giving the lead in Electoral College votes to George W. Bush one minute, and Gore the next. When the state of Florida was given to Gore at 8 p.m., cheers reverberated throughout the Sheraton in downtown Nashville where the majority of Gore's campaign staff had rooms. But when the race in Florida was suddenly declared too close to call at 9:55 p.m., an icy chill blew through the crowd. And at 2 a.m., the state was called for Bush -- only to be retracted again about 90 minutes later. The flip-flopping of the crucial state's 25 electoral votes enveloped the crowd in uncertainty. And the flux in Florida hung over the entire night, with no resolution in the early hours. Concern initially struck the supporters at the War Memorial Plaza when the first states -- Kentucky and Indiana -- fell to Bush at 6 p.m., causing Gore to begin the evening trailing his Republican opponent by 20 electoral votes. Then the re-labeling of Florida set a somber mood that was carried all the way until the likely victor was announced after 2 a.m. "It's getting tenser and tenser," Gore volunteer David A. Mynatt, 50, said hours before Bush's win. The atmosphere was punctuated only by Gore's expected pick-up of electorally rich California at 10 p.m. When 53-electoral vote California was conquered, a tremendous roar rose up through the hotel and the crowd outside. Still, exasperated staff members and volunteers clustered around television sets throughout the hotel, hoping for word about Florida, the state which held the election in the balance. "It's 1960 all over again," 64-year-old David Ragosin, a Gore volunteer from Nashville, said. When it became obvious at midnight that a Bush win in Florida would give the White House to the Republicans -- Bush had 246 electoral votes versus Gore's 242 -- the music stopped at the election night party and the monitors switched to CNN instead. The silence of the crowd was thick, as CNN's election analysis received everyone's full attention -- with cheers emerging only when Gore's lead in Iowa became apparent. And when Florida seemed to fall at 2:17 a.m. most of those supporting Gore cried. "I thought it was a travesty," Gore supporter Jan Koplon, 40, said. "I [am] very saddened by Gore's losing tonight." But when the the race was thrown once again into limbo, the crowd rallied. Gore was fighting to the end, without sleep for over 40 hours. He made last-minute phone calls to radio stations while Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Gore's running mate, called voters.