Bush Is Panicking!

In a huge, highly unusual step, Bush is inviting reporters into the White House to talk to the nation before the votes have been counted. ABC is speculating that Bush will be urging voters to go to the polls and say he is still fighting and so should they. (A number of battleground states have late poll closings, like 10 p.m. EST and of course then there's Hawaii.)

Really big break with tradition and certainly NOT a sign of confidence. ABC's Terry Moran describes the Bush people as "highly combative" and Dean Reynolds describes the Kerry camp as confident and very optimistic about Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida.

Bush is panicking!

Now Peter Jennings is grilling RNC head Ed Gillespie and finding out Ed has no idea what Bush is going to say and hasn't spoken to him in a while. Fascinating.

Bush is panicking!

HISTORICAL UPDATE: As ABC points out, Bush called in the media when Florida was called for Gore (how could it go to Gore? His brother had PROMISED him!) and said he didn't believe it and questioned the numbers. That of course was the beginning of his strategy of acting like the victor even when he clearly lost the popular vote. Bush didn't want anyone in the western states to think it was over. Hmmmm. Don't let the loser behave like a winner.

FINAL UPDATE: Truly bizarre. Bush seemed to just want the cameras to show him looking calm and smiling. Hey buddy, if you were calm and smiling, why would we need to see you looking calm and smiling?