Bruce Morton: U.S. has survived disputed elections before

By Bruce Morton/CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Tuesday's presidential race between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush is hinging on a recount in Florida, and the late-night TV guys love it.

"Man, what is it down to, just a couple of voters?" NBC's "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno said Wednesday. "Boy, wouldn't it be great if the whole thing was decided by Elian Gonzalez's crazy relatives, Uncle Lazaro and the crazy fisherman?"

Gore leads the popular vote by a narrow margin, but could lose the electoral vote by a far narrower margin in Florida. But on the daytime side of the talk-show business, Oprah Winfrey didn't think it was funny.

"We are leaderless," she said Thursday. "We are live in Chicago on November 9 and we are still leaderless. Aren't we shocked?"

Some of us are. As one woman told CNN, "It just makes me think, whoever they elect, is that really the president or is it a mistake?"

These days, everything is instant. But elections used to be slow and the United States always muddled through somehow.

Abraham Lincoln was murdered, and his vice president, Andrew Johnson, was impeached in a country bitterly divided at the end of the Civil War -- but power passed smoothly.

In 1824, Andrew Jackson won the popular vote and the electoral vote, but by less than a majority -- and the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. Power passed smoothly, and Jackson won the presidency four years later.

Grover Cleveland won the popular vote in 1888 as the Electoral College went for Benjamin Harrison. Four years later, Cleveland took on Harrison again and won.

In 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned the presidency -- something that had never happened before -- people said it would be bad for the country. But it was only bad for Nixon: The country, under President Ford, was calm.

It was the same Nixon who, when he lost a very close election to John Kennedy in 1960, did not pursue vote fraud charges in Illinois, but accepted the result. But this time, everyone is talking about it.

"If I were on the other side," GOP elector Teresa Chappel said, "I probably would say, 'Yeah, the popular vote.' However, it is the Electoral College in this country that elects our president, and I think that should hold."

They'll debate changing the system for next time. But the odds are this election will be decided under the law -- calmly, with no coup or national collapse. And if we need a temporary president, somebody to mind the store while the lawsuits get settled, I know just the guy, and so do you: Bill Clinton.

You know he would love to be asked. After all, it beats being the spouse of a famous senator.