USTIN, Texas - There was an eerie familiarity about the scene. George W. Bush and his aides awaited the Florida Supreme Court decision yesterday with all the optimism of election night, laying the groundwork for a victory speech and resurrecting plans for a celebration that was supposed to happen more than a month ago.
Just as he had on Nov. 7, Bush exuded an aura of inevitability, telling reporters he was ready to ''get on with America's business.'' Hundreds of miles away in Washington, Vice President Al Gore mirrored his election night posture as well, expressing confidence even as his supporters gloomily predicted a Democratic defeat.
But like election night, yesterday's events brought an extraordinary turnabout for each candidate, coming after a day of roller-coaster twists as emotionally wrenching as the day the ballots were cast.
''They are shouting in the halls of the White House,'' a senior adviser to President Clinton said minutes after the Florida court's decision was announced.
The decision was especially gratifying for Gore, whose candidacy was considered all but dead as late as yesterday afternoon, when two lower courts in Florida refused to toss out absentee ballots that largely favored Bush. The Gore team steeled itself for final defeat, and Democrats nationwide expected a concession speech as early as this weekend.
Then, at 4 p.m., the mood abruptly changed as Craig Waters, spokesman for the Florida Supreme Court, uttered the word ''reversed.''
Gore, watching the news with just his wife, Tipper, in the library of the vice president's mansion, was elated as Waters continued to say that the high court had not only reversed an earlier circuit court ruling against the vice president, but ordered immediate recounts statewide of ballots not initially tallied by machine counters.
The court also narrowed Bush's lead in the state from 537 votes to 154 votes by including 383 previously counted votes that had been discarded in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.
In the White House, the moment of celebration came seconds earlier, as aides clustered around television sets saw MSNBC preempt Waters by announcing that court sources had told the cable network the court had ruled in Gore's favor by a 4-3 vote.
One aide who joined in the celebration asked in jest, ''You really thought this was going to end any other way?''
The Bush camp reacted with stunned silence. More than an hour passed before former secretary of state James A. Baker III, the head of the Bush legal team in Florida, emerged to denounce the ruling as ''inconsistent with Florida law, with federal law and with the United States Constitution.''
''There we have no alternative other than appeal once again to the United States Supreme Court for relief,'' Baker said. ''We have already put in motion the process to do that.''
Baker said he was ''disappointed.'' But other Bush advisers said the mood inside headquarters was more ''incredulous,'' despite assurances from campaign manager Don Evans and political strategist Karl Rove that the US Supreme Court would overturn the Florida justices after a hearing that could occur as early as this weekend.
''They were confident - not outraged, but incredulous at the liberalness of the Florida Supreme Court,'' one Republican adviser said of Rove and Evans, who spent the afternoon in hastily arranged meetings and conference calls.
As planned, Bush hosted a Christmas party for staff and his security detail at the governor's mansion last night, and expected to retreat to his ranch in Crawford this afternoon. Baker described the Texas governor as in ''fine spirits and quite prepared to see this through to its ultimate conclusion,'' although the schedule was a far cry from the one Bush had anticipated.
Aides had even begun discussing a trip to Washington to meet with President Clinton for the transition, a plan that sounded remote by last night.
''Most people are shocked,'' said Ron Kaufman, a close associate of the Bush family and the Massachusetts committeeman at the Republican National Committee. ''Certainly today was emotionally the same kind of roller-coaster ride as election night. ... Everybody I know, on both sides of the aisle, thought it was over and wanted it to be over. Everybody.''
Another Republican described it as ''almost bigger than Nov. 7, because we've lived this for 30-plus days.''
''One thing about this election: For every high, there's a low,'' agreed Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Bush liaison in the US House.
Perhaps the surest sign that most politicians considered the election over came from the US Senate, where Democrats and Republicans discussed a 50-50 split as though it were a done deal. That scenario, however, would depend on Gore's running mate, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, returning to the Senate instead of ascending to the vice presidency, a possibility that had been all but dismissed before yesterday.
For the first time since Nov. 7, Lieberman appeared poised last night to leave his current post. Less than an hour after the announcement, Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, arrived at the Gore residence to share a moment with the vice president. Also at the mansion were campaign chairman William Daley, adviser Carter Eskew, and Audrey Haynes, Tipper Gore's chief of staff.
Gore also received a call from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, congratulating him on the court win, said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. The vice president also called his lawyers in Tallahassee, congratulating the members on their court victory.
''The worm has taken on a Baryshnikov quality,'' Lehane said, invoking the name of the Russian ballet star. ''It constantly pirouettes across the stage.''
He said Gore was pleased by the ruling, ''Obviously, the decision reflected the principle that Al Gore has been fighting for since the beginning: Count every vote. Not only are they going to do that in Miami-Dade; they're going to do it throughout the state.''
A top Gore aide felt the recounts would benefit Gore, since improperly cast ballots often occur in poorer communities with aged election equipment, or elderly or uneducated voters who are confused by the voting process. All three constituencies tend to vote Democratic.
''You can't make a prediction, you can't gauge what's going to happen statewide, but we feel extremely optimistic,'' the aide said.
In issuing the campaign's formal response to the decision, Daley sought to cast attention away from Gore and Lieberman, and also warn the Florida Legislature not to take any action that might impede or supersede the court-ordered recounts. Earlier in the day, the Legislature agreed to meet Wednesday to weigh appointing a slate of electors that favors Bush.
''This decision is not just a victory for Al Gore and his millions of supporters; it is a victory for fairness and accountability and our democracy itself,'' Daley said as cars drove down Massachusetts Avenue in front of the mansion, honking their horns. Behind him, the house was decked in Christmas lights.
''Let the counting begin,'' Daley said, adding, ''All of these matters should be resolved by the Florida judiciary, not by the politicians. Al Gore and Joe Lieberman pledge to respect the results of this court-supervised vote counting. We urge everyone to respect the will of Florida's voters and honor the results of the count.''
That said, the Gore team had already been preparing to counter the appeals and injunction request made by the Bush campaign. It has been consulting all week with former solicitor general Walter Dellinger, as well as Laurence Tribe, the Harvard Law School constitutional expert who represented the vice president before the US Supreme Court.
The campaign is also ready to build a public relations case for Gore should he pull ahead in the vote tally.
They plan to highlight the role Republicans in the Florida Legislature and Congress may play in any battle over the state's slate of electors.
''I think if we count the votes, we're ahead,'' said one top Gore adviser. ''Then what?
''Then they're going to appoint electors, and have the slate sworn off by the candidate's brother,'' Florida Governor Jeb Bush, ''and then sent to Congress for Tom DeLay and Dick Armey to manage?''
Material from Reuters news service was used in this report.
