USTIN, Texas - Aides to George W. Bush tried to downplay suggestions they had launched the transition to a Bush White House before the votes were all in, but the campaign sent clear signals yesterday that the Texas governor considers the Florida recount a formality, casting Al Gore as an illegitimate challenger to a race Bush had already won.
Bush strategist Karl Rove said they had no victory party planned for last night - but said it was because there were no venues available in Austin. During the day, the Texas governor met with potential prominent players in a Bush White House, including Andrew Card, a Massachusetts native and former secretary of transportation, and Condoleezza Rice, Bush's chief foreign policy adviser during his campaign.
At a news conference, three senior Bush advisers repeatedly emphasized that Bush had already been elected president Tuesday, declining to point out that victory consisted of a declaration by the TV networks which was retracted after 45 minutes. And although they insisted their focus was the Florida results, the advisers made no secret of the fact that Bush is already planning an administration - and, they said, rightfully so.
''I think the important thing to focus on right now is the outcome of the recount, and that's where really our focus is,'' campaign chairman Don Evans said. But, he added: ''Do you need to be thinking about governing the country? Certainly you do. I mean, we know what the results were from election night, and so it's only appropriate that the governor begin to think about governing this country.''
Evans also said: ''We are confident that an accurate recount will verify the results of Tuesday night.''
In refusing to allow for the possibility that Gore might have a chance of winning, even though he was only a few hundred votes away last night, the Bush campaign made a strategic decision to project an image of strength - one they hoped would make Bush appear to be the de facto president-elect.
But the effort appeared to be more than just a public relations strategy. In fact, Bush began mapping out his ascension to the White House weeks before Nov. 7, and prior to election day, aides almost never considered the possibility that he might lose. The same was true yesterday. Unlike Gore campaign chairman William Daley, who said he would support Bush if the recount showed him ahead, the Bush aides did not even address the possibility that Gore could have won, or might still.
The campaign instead cast Gore as a sore loser, sharpening their rhetoric on a day of back-and-forth news conferences and increasingly bitter attacks that were broadcast live around the world.
''The Democrats, who are politicizing and distorting these events, risk doing so at the expense of our democracy,'' Evans said. ''One of the options that they seem to be looking at is new elections. Our democratic process calls for a vote on Election Day; it does not call for us to continue voting until someone likes the outcome.''
Rove, the strategist who early Tuesday telephoned TV networks demanding they withdraw the prediction that Gore would win Florida, raised the specter of chaos akin to that in Third World countries after an unpopular election outcome.
''I believe that we have an Election Day for the purpose of having an election,'' he said. ''And in this country at least we don't follow the practice of some other countries in the world and hold elections and hold elections until somebody gets the outcome that they desire.''
Still, as the rhetoric from the Gore campaign intensified, Bush aides could not avoid going on the defensive as they knocked aside Gore's claims that voters had accidentally selected Pat Buchanan on a confusing ballot in Palm Beach County. Distributing copies of the ballot to reporters - clear copies, they said, unlike the fuzzy ones handed out by Gore - Bush aides said it was not only easy to read but also identical to a so-called ''butterfly ballot'' used in other places. Rove even took a personal swipe at Daley, noting that the Palm Beach ballot is the same used by elections officials in Cook County, Ill., the district encompassing the city of Chicago, where his brother is mayor.
As if they were still on the campaign trail, Bush aides made no secret of their disdain for Gore's handling of the Florida election aftermath, suggesting it was indicative of how he would perform under pressure in the White House. The resolution ''should not only serve as a testament to the strength of our democracy, but also a reflection of how each candidate deals with a matter of the utmost national importance,'' Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
Hughes, asked to consider what the country should take away from the historic cliffhanger, immediately viewed it in political terms. ''I think the country should look at the way the two campaigns are approaching this,'' she said. ''We have approached this in a calm, in a thoughtful, in a responsible way.''
