'Count all the votes'

The vice president reacted strongly when asked if he was demanding special treatment in extending counting deadlines and asking for more recounts. He compared the disputed ballots in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties to products that pass the supermarket checkout computers without being added into the total price.

"What happens when it misses one? Do they give it to you for free?" Gore asked. "No, they do a hand count of that item. And those computers are far more sophisticated than these Votomatic machines."

Gore insisted that elections should be determined by the will of the people and "not by politicians who have control of the election machinery, and who decide, for whatever reason, to let some votes in that are legally cast, and take other legally cast votes and exclude them."

The vice president said he's refused to say that the Republicans are trying to "steal the election" because he and Bush have an obligation to "pave the way" for the victor to unify the country.

"The only way to avoid having a cloud over the next president is to count all the votes," Gore said, adding that all legal strategy boiled down to one thing: getting all the votes counted.

'An incredible story'

Responding to a query about his political viability following this battle for the White House, Gore said he hopes to be in a position to run for re-election in 2004.

"But a higher obligation still is the obligation I have to the Constitution and to the country, to insist the election have integrity and it not be something that ends with a cloud of illegitimacy," the vice president said. "And there is one way to do that and that is to count the votes, and there are thousands and thousands of votes that have never been counted even once."

He predicted the election would be decided by the middle of December and admitted it has been an emotional roller coaster. "It's an incredible story, the way it's unfolded, isn't it?" Gore said.

But he said this experience is not as difficult as the campaign.

"It's nice to sleep in the same bed every night and to be surrounded by my family, and to get seven, eight hours of sleep, and exercise every day, so in many ways it's much more relaxing and much easier than the campaign trail," the vice president said.

Gore said he relaxes by playing with his grandson. When asked what his grandson might read in his eighth grade history books, Gore said he hoped the boy would read "that the Gore-Lieberman administration was a great success, following one of the most exciting and closely fought election contests in American history."