In a jolting turnabout, George W. Bush's lead in Florida is suddenly in peril -- and his carefully crafted image as the most-likely-to-succeed presidential candidate could fade with each newfound vote for Al Gore.
It's Bush's turn to play defense.
The Florida Supreme Court voted 4-3 Friday to order manual recounts across the state to review as many as 45,000 ballots on which tabulating machines found no vote for president.
The seven justices also added votes to Gore's totals, apparently shaving Bush's 537-vote margin to fewer than 200 -- out of 6 million cast.
His lead and chief political advantage in jeopardy, Bush immediately asked the US Supreme Court to block the recounts.
And the Texas governor stood ready to dip into an arsenal of political weapons, including a Republican-led Florida Legislature willing to anoint Bush the victor regardless of the recounts and a Republican Congress that may yet be dragged into the morass.
"Oh, Lord," said Donna S. Concroft, a Jefferson County elections supervisor. "I thought it was fixin' to be over."
Not even close.
An overwhelming majority of counties with the questionable ballots supported Bush, but number crunchers in both camps predicted Friday night that Gore stands to gain from scattered recounts.
Even in Republican counties, Democratic voters tend to live in areas using antiquated voting machines that misread the most ballots, they said.
Gore's team believes they would net at least 300 votes in Miami-Dade County alone, maybe twice that much if the canvassing board uses a liberal standard in an attempt to discern voters' intent. Senior Bush advisers didn't dispute the figures.
The simple but striking math forced Bush to fight the recount ruling. If he fails, the Texas governor fears he will quickly fall behind Gore, banished to the same uncomfortable spot from which the vice president has fought since election day: Second place.
"No elected official can ignore the full count of a state endorsed by the state's highest court, and we'll have that in a few days," said Gore deputy chief of staff Mark Fabiani.
"He can hold all the photo-ops he wants with the people he hopes to hire in the Bush administration, but if he falls behind us in the vote count, it doesn't mean a thing," he said.
Bush tried to force Gore from the race by playing the part of president-elect -- naming his White House chief of staff, leaking his picks for Cabinet posts and posing for pictures in presidential postures. He and his troops declared victory, again and again.
Gore fought back in the courts, but kept swinging at air until the Supreme Court salvaged his presidential dreams Friday night, even as Democratic lawmakers were counting him out and his own advisers were making plans for a dignified exit from politics.
Now the vice president gets to play offense. He hopes to capture the lead and press for Bush's surrender -- just as Bush had done to him.
"We urge everyone to let the counting -- supervised by the independent judiciary -- to proceed without interference to a speedy conclusion," said Gore campaign chairman Bill Daley. "All of these matters should be resolved by Florida's judiciary, not by the politicians."
Bush's point man in Florida, James A. Baker III, reacted the same way he did when the state high court extended the deadline last month for recounts. He lashed out at Gore and the court.
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