DOWN TO THE WIRE

At the White House, Karl Rove had set up quarters in the family dining room. (He had joked to reporters that he would be working in the "bat cave.") National-security adviser Condoleezza Rice wandered in and out and joked that Rove was looking at way too many numbers. Rove was studying comparisons of results in Florida and Ohio with the poll data in the 2000 election. At about 10:30, he called over to the senior staff, nervously hovering around the Roosevelt Room, and told them that the president would win both Florida and Ohio. The cheers were so loud that they could be heard down the hall in the press briefing room. Then ABC News called Florida for Bush; another eruption. Only now did Karen Hughes finally admit that the White House had drafted two speeches--one for a concession. It no longer looked that the second speech would be necessary.

In Copley Square in Boston, the fans had stopped chanting, "We want a party!" The Red Sox Nation euphoria was dissipating along with Senator Kerry's chances. The ballroom of the Fairmont Copley Plaza suddenly felt like a ghost town. All the top Kerry aides, on hand to spin reporters, suddenly vanished. The buffet table was deserted. A few junior aides hung around.

At the White House, the Secret Service was told to prepare a motorcade to go over to the Ronald Reagan Building, where the party faithful were awaiting the president's victory speech. But there was a nagging glitch: the networks were refusing to declare any more states for Bush. His electoral tally, according to NBC and Fox, stood at 269, one shy of the 270 necessary to win. The Kerry campaign put out a defiant statement, refusing to concede anything. Bush was frustrated. He wanted to claim the victory he knew to be his. But Rove counseled caution. They had to wait. A long night was getting longer.

For the Kerry camp, reality began to set in around 9 p.m., when the Democrats realized that Bush would take Florida after all. The news was not entirely a surprise. Despite some giddiness over the exit polls earlier in the day, Kerry's own experts knew the numbers might be misleading. Kerry's polls had turned south overnight on Monday. Still, the Kerryites clung to one last hope, that Ohio might still fall into the Democratic column. When NBC and Fox called Ohio for Bush around 1 a.m., Kerry's advisers eyed a last-ditch strategy--holding out for a late count that would include "provisional votes" that would not be counted for another 10 days.

But the numbers did not add up. The number of provisional votes hovered around Bush's margin of victory in Ohio, and the campaign recognized that only a portion of them came from pro-Kerry counties. Nothing but a miracle could save Kerry, and the candidate and his advisers saw that the long wait and inevitable court fights would paint Kerry as a sore loser. Adviser Ron Klain presented an aggressive legal strategy, but Kerry decided to spare the country.

Just after 11 a.m., Kerry called the president and conceded. The conversation between the two old enemies was gracious. "I hope you are proud of the effort you put in," Bush told Kerry. Both men agreed that the country had grown too divided, that both sides need to reach out.