On the scene with Candy Crowley in Texas

As CNN's senior political correspondent, Candy Crowley has covered the George W. Bush presidential campaign extensively. She is currently with the Bush campaign in Texas.

Candy Crowley

Q: Is it accurate to think there is no backroom communication between the campaigns?

CROWLEY: I would say there is no backroom conversation between the two campaigns, for two reasons: The tension at this point and the mistrust is very high, and secondly, there is no clear-cut compromise out there that shows a solution that doesn't give an advantage to either Bush or Gore. So there is very little to talk about, even if they wanted to communicate.

Q: Last week it appeared the Bush campaign was losing the public relations war. Is that still the case?

CROWLEY: I think the Bush camp definitely felt that the Gore campaign was quicker on the ground in Florida, that they had more people -- lawyers and public relations efforts -- in Florida than the Bush team did. They quickly rectified that problem, and sent their own scores of lawyers and people to the state.

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Now it is difficult to tell who has the advantage. Public opinion tells us that people are willing to wait for a fair and accurate outcome. But they don't tell us two things: How long are they willing to wait, and what is the public definition of a fair and accurate outcome?

Q: Are there trappings of the presidency appearing around Bush that are not obvious to the CNN viewer?

CROWLEY: Viewers have seen Bush efforts to put together what they call 'preliminary transition plans' for a potential administration. Bush has had daily discussions with his vice presidential nominee, Dick Cheney, and with Andrew Card, a former transportation secretary who is expected to be Bush's chief of staff should he win. But the Bush camp points out that transition plans, of necessity, have been under way in both camps since before the election, because the time is so short and getting shorter between when a president is elected and when he is inaugurated. What the Gore camp has called presumptuous planning on the part of the Bush team, the Bush team merely sees as necessary.

There are no trappings around him that bespeak of a man who's been elected president.

Q: Is there any talk in the Bush camp that members of the Electoral College might not follow the vote in the states?

CROWLEY: I don't believe either the Bush or the Gore camps believe that an errant elector might go against the wishes of his or her state. These electors tend to be partisan supporters of the person who selected them.

Q: Is the Bush campaign thinking about how all this will be regarded in history?

CROWLEY: The Bush camp is so concerned about the present, that I have been told by top aides that there has been no discussion about whether a Bush victory would put him in a weak position to govern, much less any discussion of how this will be viewed by history. They feel they need to get through the present first.