Wolf Blitzer on the historic U.S. presidential election

November 15, 2000
Web posted at: 5:22 p.m. EST (2222 GMT)

Wolf Blitzer

CNN's Wolf Blitzer spoke with CNN.com about this historic presidential election -- what he called one of the 'most incredible stories I have ever covered.'

Q: As a political junkie, what have you found most interesting about this election?

BLITZER: The most fascinating part of this story for me personally has been the historic implications of what we're all watching right now.

I majored in American history as an undergraduate many years ago at the State University of New York in Buffalo. I studied political science in graduate school at Johns Hopkins University. I always had a passion for American presidential history -- details about elections and presidents throughout the more than 200 years of our country's history.

As cynical as some of us might occasionally have a temptation to become, I step back and say to myself, 'We're going to be talking about this election for some time.'

Our children, grandchildren and their children are going to be studying this election for a long, long time.

This is one of the most incredible stories I have ever covered. Given that a few hundred votes in Florida out of 6 million ballots cast there and nearly 100 million cast nationwide could determine the next president of the United States is something that is totally beyond comprehension -- something no one could have predicted.

Q: Did you ever expect you would see something like this?

BLITZER: I always assumed there was a possibility that some day we could get a president who won the popular vote and who lost the Electoral College, which occurred three times in the 18th century.

But I never thought that it would happen this way -- where the margin of victory is so, so, so tiny.

The real deadline now is December 18. That's when the Electoral College will meet. The pressure will be enormous on Florida to certify and complete its vote tallies by then, so that the 25 electors of Florida will attend the Electoral College and vote for president of the United States.

If for some reason they don't get their act together in Florida by then, if the legal battles are still continuing, the Electoral College will meet and they will vote without Florida. And whoever gets the majority of the remaining 49 states and the District of Columbia will become president of the United States.

Q: Is it healthy for the nation that the presidency could in some ways be determined by the judicial branch?

BLITZER: What's healthy for the nation right now is to see the process unfolding. Millions of Americans and millions of people around the world are learning about the way we do business in this country, about democracy and about the way it's supposed to work.

If there's a silver lining in all this, I think it's the civics lesson that we are all getting in law and politics.

Look, when politics and the law mix, there is always the potential for some explosive development. When presidential politics and the law mix, then there's really a potential for some explosive developments.

We're seeing some of that right now. All of us need to step back in reporting all this without inflaming anything.

(We also must) understand there's a procedure in place in Florida -- a legal and political procedure -- and let's let the Floridians work this out.

Q: At what point does a candidate finally concede defeat?

BLITZER: I think one of the candidates will eventually concede once the legal challenges have been played out. At that point, if the state of Florida says either Bush or Gore has won and there are no more legal avenues to follow and politically it just doesn't make sense to continue to fight, then one of these two candidates will concede and wish the other candidate the best of luck in the White House.

I think that once all of the dust settles -- whether it's a week from now or two weeks from now or whenever -- it will be critical for the losing presidential candidate to handle himself in a dignified and responsible way and say, 'Congratulations. Good luck. I fought a hard fight, but it's time to move on, and maybe we'll meet again in four years.'

Q: How do you think history will look back on this election?