If Bush wins, the margin of Bush's victory will have been provided by this year's version of Ross Perot: Ralph Nader, the third party spoiler. He proved the difference in New Hampshire and potentially Wisconsin, and may yet prove to be the difference in Florida.

At the same time, it appeared that many voters who were inclined to cast their ballots for Nader--he had been polling near five percent in the national vote--changed their mind at the last minute.

Although the race was far from decided, critical momentum early in the night was in the Vice President's favor. Not long after 8 p.m., the networks awarded Florida--and its 25 electoral votes--to Gore.

At that time, Bush supporters expressed disappointment that Florida--which many felt Bush needed to win to reach 270 electoral votes--had been lost to Gore.

Pundits noted that while the Daley political machine had turned out the Democratic vote for Gore in Illinois, Bush's brother Jeb--the popular governor of Florida--could not deliver his own state to his brother.

The analysis turned out to be dead right. Bush needed Florida to win. But Gore had the state in his hands, and many surmised that by holding Pennsylvania and Michigan as well, his chances for the White House were strong.

But several hours later, this premise seemed based upon a false promise. Two hours later, all the networks had retracted Florida and returned it to the "too close to call" category.