Tony Clark: Election deadlock enters its 11th day

CNN's Tony Clark

CNN Correspondent Tony Clark is in Austin, Texas, covering Gov. George W. Bush's activities as the election deadlock enters its eleventh day.

Q. What's happening today at the governor's mansion?

CLARK: It's rainy and cold here today, kind of gloomy. Normally there are supporters and opponents of the governor who are out around the governor's mansion but today's inclement weather has stopped that. We saw a few people who were holding signs a while ago, but the large numbers of demonstrators aren't here today. We got here at 5 a.m. local time and it's gotten rainier and colder since then.

Q. Sounds like a pretty glamorous assignment.

CLARK: Oh, yeah. We're just standing in a tent with the rain coming down. If anything happens, we're available. The sidewalk across the street from the mansion is lined with journalists with a series of tents protecting all of us from the rain. It's like a little tent village. Everybody's waiting.

Q. What is Governor Bush doing today?

CLARK: He left the mansion this morning and headed over to the Capitol to do some work as the state's chief executive. He's expected to work a while in his office and then do some exercise, workout, before coming back to the mansion this afternoon.

Q. How is he handling the setback of the Florida Supreme Court's decision on Friday not to allow the Florida secretary of state to certify the votes today?

CLARK: His aides say that he's optimistic but that he would also like to bring this to a conclusion. This is the day that Bush had hoped to declare victory in the presidential race but all that came to an end when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that they were going to have a hearing on Monday about the manual recount. Staffers say they feel like they're on a roller coaster. They won a victory in one court, then a setback in another court.

Q. Has the Bush camp made any changes in its public relations strategy?

CLARK: There's been one change we've seen this week. The Bush camp was much more visible until a few days ago in terms of planning for a presidency. They had been talking about the transition and met with people to talk about key spots in the Bush administration. But in the past several days we haven't seen any of that. The campaign was criticized for being presumptive for going ahead and planning for an administration when the outcome of the election wasn't known. Now they're hunkering down. Even the governor, when he's asked about what's going on in Florida, he refers every question to James Baker.

Q. How are Texans reacting to the election wrangling? Is the state as divided as much of the rest of the country?

CLARK: No. This is very much a strong Bush state. He easily won the governor's election and he easily carried the state in the presidential election. During the last six years of so Bush has had a lot of support here. He's a very popular governor.