World News 21-11-2000 Seven Judges Will Decide Presidency who: Al Gore and George W. Bush what: Await decision of state supreme court where: Florida, USA when: Today snippet: "The endgame of the contentious US Presidential election was being be played out in the Supreme Court of Florida yesterday," says Mary Dejevsky in The Independent, "as two of the country`s top lawyers pleaded the case for and against allowing the results of manual recounts". Seven judges will decide today whether the manual recounting of votes should be allowed. If they vote Yes, Democratic candidate Al Gore is expected to win (although after recounting two-thirds of the ballots in Broward county, he was showing a net gain of only 114 votes, according to today`s Guardian). If they do not, Republican George W Bush will be the president elect. It`s a "surreal, deadly serious game show," says Ben Macintyre in The Times, "a combination of Who Wants to be a President?, Big Brother and Mastermind". Tens of millions watched Chief Justice Charles Wells and Justices Harry Lee Anstead, Major Harding, Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente, Peggy Quince and Leander Shaw Jnr fire questions at the Party`s lawyers, each given just one hour to put their case. Should Al Gore lose the case, his party will nevertheless benefit from "the installation of Bush as the weakest president for more than a century," writes Hugo Young. "For one thing, he would be able to do very little... Bush can make it to the White House only as damaged goods." [... more]

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