Going into Election Night 2000, who did you expect to win?

[Reaganfan]

I was 12 years old at the time, and kept track through the campaign. I held out that Bush was going to win in the end.

[Reaganfan]

I was 12 years old at the time, and kept track through the campaign. I held out that Bush was going to win in the end.

I wasn't really into politics much back then. I paid more attention to the Carnahan-Ashcroft fiasco. However, I did except Bush to win in 2004, and I would  have voted for him also. I do not like Northeastern Liberals. West Coast liberals are farrrr better.

I remember, on November 7, 2000 I was watching NBC News Special Election Coverage, and grabbed my dry erase board as Tim Russert had, and my parents were with my sister next door at a school funtion. (We lived literally a minute away from our school) My father walked in and I said, "Gore won Florida" which made my father nervous. I remember to this day saying, "Don't worry, it's just Florida."

The school election wasn't as close, with Bush winning narrowly.

[Reaganfan]

Every night, on NBC Nightly News, they had the latest poll. They would have a picture of Bush and a picture of Gore, and one guy would go onto of the other depending on who was leading. I remember seeing a couple of those, and only once did Gore lead over Bush.

When the DUI came out, it was terrible. I remember thinking Bush was done. I think it seriously hurt him, otherwise he could have carried Florida easier, and maybe grabbed Oregon and Minnesota.

[Reaganfan]

New Mexico?

I knew I forgot one.

[Reaganfan]

In 2000, I was expecting Gore to win.

In 2004, I was quite certain Kerry would win, as the idea of Bush winning a second time was too outrageously unjust to believe.  It wasn't.

The way I always saw it that was that if Governor George W. Bush won Ohio and Florida, a President George W. Bush who had been at one point the most popular president in history with 70-90% approval ratings from 2001-2003, would definitley win again, especially given he is stronger in 2004 after his high approval as President then he was as the Governor of Texas. I was right, and 62 million Americans sent him in with more electoral votes and a nice popular vote win then they did in 2000.

[Reaganfan]

2000 is the only election since '76 that I didn't do electoral maps for and follow my state-by-state predictions as the results came in. In fact, of all the elections since I got interested in politics around 1966, I probably paid less attention to this one than any other, because my father was seriously ill and I was preoccupied with him and his condition. I did follow it as best I could, and it seemed as if Bush was leading through most of the campaign, but in the last week or so the trend was towards Gore, especially in the last couple of days. I knew it was going to be very close, and that I was in for a long night of watching the returns. Based on the polls from the last few days, I thought Gore was a very slight favorite. On election night, the early returns looked good for him, and when the networks called Florida for him, I thought he had it. Then, of course, they un-called Florida, which gave me a very uneasy feeling (not because I thought any chicanery was going on, just because I thought he might need those EVs), and the feeling grew as more returns came in and Gore was not doing as well as expected in the south and midwest. I finally went to bed at about 4 in the morning, convinced he had lost, and awakened again around 7 to find out that he hadn't.

Actually...he had lost...it was just so close that a recount of Bush's victory was needed.