ASHINGTON - What happens in the Florida courts and canvasses is crucial, but another critical battle for the presidency is playing out on small screens and front pages.
''This is the O.J. trial of politics,'' said Tom Rath, a lawyer and GOP adviser in Concord, N.H. ''At this point, the game is being played out for the press and, at the moment, to wear down the American people.''
Hour by hour, with spin and stagecraft, the camps of George W. Bush and Al Gore are competing to shape public opinion and persuade a so-far patient public that the outcome in Florida isn't about power or partisanship, but about fair play and putting the legitimate winner of the presidential election in the White House as soon as possible.
Yesterday, James A. Baker III, Bush's representative in Florida, went before cameras with a warning designed to press the Texas governor's case. The delay in certifying a winner of the state's 25 electoral votes was contributing to uncertainty overseas and in financial markets, said Baker, a former secretary of state.
''Why are the markets disturbed? Because they don't see any finality here,'' Baker said.
Within the hour, William Daley, Gore's campaign chairman, was holding his own news conference to reject Baker's proposal that both sides accept the results of Florida's recount as of 5 p.m. yesterday. Daley suggested that Baker's analysis of the markets was coming from ''somewhat partisan investment bankers'' who were telling the Republicans what they wanted to hear. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq averages were, in fact, both up sharply yesterday.
''If there are changes in the market, they are a result of some of the earnings statements that have been put out by the companies, having nothing to do with what's gone on in the last week in the political world,'' Daley said.
The public's focus on and fascination with the Florida vote has raised the stakes for both campaigns to get the pictures, words, and tone just right: Neither can afford to appear too smug about winning or obsessed with snatching a victory.
Some political analysts think both campaigns have stumbled.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said Baker and Warren M. Christopher, the former secretary of state who serves as Gore's Florida representative, seem to have gone from elder statesmen with diplomatic skills to partisan wranglers.
''I don't think either the Bush or Gore people are doing very well at it,'' Jamieson said. ''By veering from one argument to another, it looks as if they are doing whatever it takes to win.''
Both sides have had their public relations mistakes. Political analysts say the Bush camp blundered when it began talking prematurely last week about planning its transition. The Gore campaign probably came on too strong and belligerently when it first threatened to back a court fight against questionable ballots in Palm Beach County. Baker said Bush would not litigate, but then launched the first lawsuit.
Over the weekend, TV viewers saw images of Bush relaxing at his ranch and Gore going to church and playing touch football with his family. The point was clear: They weren't consumed with politics.
Monday, when Gore made a statement to the press, the White House was in the background. Nor was it accidental that the vice president struck a statesmanlike tone, saying his focus was ''not the contest, but our democracy, to make sure that the process works the way our founders intended it.
''Look, I would not want to win the presidency by a few votes cast in error or misinterpreted or not counted, and I don't think Governor Bush wants that either,'' Gore said.
David Gergen, who has advised Republican and Democratic presidents, says Bush and Gore would have been better served in the court of public opinion if they had stepped forward soon after the election and spoken out, empathizing with the public's frustration and uncertainty.
''I think both candidates have been diminished by this,'' Gergen said. ''Both appear to have retreated from positions of leadership and have turned over the decision-making to partisan lawyers, instead of stepping forward and taking command of the situation.''
Dale Herbeck, chairman of the communications department at Boston College, said the candidates are on a tightrope.
Bush and Gore both have to find ways to legitimize their claims to the White House. At the same time, they need to act somewhat disinterested in the Florida process or risk looking too hungry for power.
''The brinkmanship is incredible. The moment they or their representatives say anything, it is instantaneously out there - boom! - in the hypermedia,'' Herbeck said. ''There is no room for mistakes.''
GOP pollster Frank Luntz said the Bush team has given Gore the public-relations advantage by ''talking too much in political and process terms, while the Gore camp spoke the more proper language of principles and fairness.''
But Luntz said Baker began to ''turn it around today and put Gore on the defensive'' when he offered a deal to end the standoff.
The pollster said that the challenge to Bush and Gore is to be sure they are seen as statesmen when they and their surrogates are really motivated by only one thing, which is winning.
There is no indication yet that the public is impatient with the endgame. A New York Times/CBS News poll this week showed that 90 percent of all adults were following the developments very or somewhat closely, but only 35 percent of those surveyed thought the presidential uncertainly was ''a problem'' for the country. Almost half of the respondents approved of how the Bush and Gore campaigns were handling the situation.
Ralph Whitehead, a public service professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said it was unprecedented for news organizations to be polling about candidates after the election.
''This is the ultimate example of the permanent campaign. Each side is still running for president,'' Whitehead said. ''I think the battle for public opinion might affect the outcome of this race, and it certainly will effect the ability of the winner to govern.''
