USTIN, Texas - Within hours of a judge's favorable ruling early yesterday on the Florida vote count, Governor George W. Bush emerged from a week of seclusion at his ranch, returning by motorcade to the Texas capital in preparation for a possible victory announcement this weekend.
Aides downplayed the idea of an actual party, but there were glimmers of suppressed euphoria everywhere, as Bush campaign officials used words like ''finality'' and ''certainty'' to describe what would happen today, when the Florida secretary of state was scheduled to certify all the ballots. There was a palpable sense of relief that Bush had overcome nearly every legal hurdle, with a district court judge ruling that Florida election officials did not have to consider hand counts.
''The good news is that, by midnight tonight, we won't have to ask `if' anymore,'' said Bush communications director Karen Hughes, cracking a tiny smile.
But as with almost every hopeful twist in the most unpredictable election in US history, it was over before it began.
Just minutes before Bush's black limousine pulled through the gates of the governor's mansion here, just hours before 10 days of tumult and suspense were supposed to end, the Florida Supreme Court threw the election process back into limbo with a decision blocking the certification process until at least next week. Scheduling a hearing for Monday afternoon, the court signaled that it may take the ongoing manual counts seriously, giving Al Gore a shot at the White House yet.
The news dismayed Bush officials, who spent the early part of the day giving studied assurances that they were not being presumptuous, insisting that they were still waiting for the final results even as aides scouted out local hotels for a celebration party site.
Still, the vote tally as it stood last night gave Republicans reason to be optimistic: After most of the absentee ballots were counted, Bush had widened his lead over Gore to more than 700 votes. At the same time, a new poll suggested voters were getting tired of the cliffhanger and just wanted the election to conclude, a position that played neatly into the Republican strategy.
There were only a few legal maneuvers left, and even those seemed to be going in the direction of the Bush campaign yesterday morning, when Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis issued a brief ruling that Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris had acted ''within reason'' in refusing to add manual recount totals to the Florida results. That decision, especially coming as it did from a Democratic judge, prompted cheers in the Bush campaign office, and senior strategist Karl Rove was seen giving staff members high-fives after it was announced on TV.
Gore aides, by contrast, appeared downcast after the initial decision, but made an effort to sound upbeat as they announced plans to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.
In the meantime, the Bush communications director held a news conference to lay out the Texas governor's schedule, continuing a pattern that gave the campaign the feel of belonging to the president-elect.
Meeting with reporters in a small briefing room inside campaign headquarters, Hughes announced that Bush would return at last to Austin, where he would be joined by his twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, this weekend. Although she said the daughters were coming home from college for Thanksgiving break, their presence, a rarity on the campaign trail, also added to speculation that a victory speech was imminent.
Hughes also emphasized the looming deadline, creating a sense that today would be the day when the election finally turned a corner.
''The one good thing about this process is that there is some certainty and some finality rapidly approaching,'' she said.
But she spoke with exceeding caution about the potential for a declaration of victory, saying it was ''premature to be having that discussion.''
''The one constant is that things are changing minute by minute,'' Hughes said.
She could not have anticipated how true the statement would prove.
Within two hours of the news conference, the Florida Supreme Court delivered its ruling on its own motion, automatically blocking the vote certification that was supposed to take place today.
That dealt a severe blow to the Republican strategy, which hinged on ending the count as quickly and smoothly as possible - and before the tallying of manual recounts in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties, where a sizable increase in votes for Gore could shift public opinion, and perhaps the election, in his favor.
It also gave a giant lift to Gore, who emerged from his home in Washington with a bounce in his step. In a brief statement, Gore avoided gloating outright, but did appear heartened as he noted that the hand counts were ''proceeding despite efforts to obstruct them.''
Just like the roller coaster of election night, when elation turned to despair and back to elation again for the Gore campaign, aides reported a mind-numbing range of emotions yesterday.
''As we say around the office, the worm turns,'' Gore spokesman Mark Fabiani said. ''And now the worm is getting dizzy.''
The same was true in the Bush camp, where the legal team suffered a second defeat shortly after the Florida Supreme Court decision was announced. A federal appeals court in Atlanta denied a Bush request that it block the hand count, rejecting Bush's argument that the manual counts are ''selective and subjective.''
The twin setbacks seemed to leave the Bush campaign in a markedly different mood.
In a hastily-arranged appearance, former secretary of state James A. Baker III, the Bush representative in Florida, sounded worn out. Although he said he was ''disappointed of course'' in the federal court ruling, he said he ''remains confident'' the Florida Supreme Court will ultimately decide in Bush's favor.
But he did not deny one hard fact: Certification is still days away, leaving the undecided post-election campaign hanging in the balance as it heads into its third amazing week.
