Book Description

This is the inside story of how Jeb Bush persuaded the Fox network to call the presidential election for his brother George W. Bush on Election Night 2000. It was one phone call to Fox — the details of which are revealed in this book for the first time — that propelled George W. Bush into leading position for 43rd president of the United States. Even though the erroneous statement had to be retracted within two hours, the damage done by this false call to Al Gore's chances of winning the election were incalculable. David Moore, at the time senior editor for the Gallup Poll, makes the plausible and alarming case that, had Fox not made this miscall, the resulting political environment would have been less biased in favor of Bush, and that Al Gore could have won. On Election Night in 2000, Moore was with the exit poll "decision team" of CBS and CNN, taking notes on how election races were called, and miscalled, around the country — including the two miscalls and two rescissions in Florida. Prior to joining Gallup in 1993, Moore was founder and director of the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire.