Vice-President Al Gore conceded victory to Governor George Bush when he ordered his recount committee in Florida to wind up its activities yesterday morning.
Mr Gore recognised he had no alternative following a confusing, but for him crushing, ruling from the US Supreme Court that while there had been problems of fairness with the recounts in Florida, there was not time to make them fairer and have them ended before a legal deadline.
It was a devastating decision for Mr Gore after five weeks of counts, recounts, court cases and appeals since election day on November 7th. It was made all the harder for him as he had won the popular vote by over 300,000 votes and was overhauling Mr Bush's slender 537vote lead in Florida in recounts until they were stopped by the Supreme Court last Saturday.
Mr Bush had been certified the winner in Florida over two weeks ago so he will now win the state's 25 Electoral College votes, which will give him the smallest majority possible of one vote when the 538 members meet next Monday. He will be the first President to be elected without winning the popular vote since 1888 and the first son of a previous President to reach the White House since John Quincy Adams in 1820.
Mr Gore spent most of yesterday preparing for his address to the nation on prime-time television at 2 a.m. this morning Irish time. Aides indicated that it would be a "statesmanlike" speech, saying it was time to put the interests of the country before the interests of politics. But it would probably not be a "concession" in the traditional fashion of a loser.
Mr Gore spoke for about 10 minutes yesterday with President Clinton, who was in Belfast. The defeat of his Vice-President is a big disappointment for Mr Clinton, who had been hoping that a Gore administration would continue his policies while the country was experiencing unprecedented prosperity.
The incoming Republican team will now become entitled to $5.3 million in public funding and offices near the White House to prepare for the takeover of the Bush administration on January 20th.
There was said to be deep feelings of bitterness among Democrats at the Supreme Court decision, which handed victory to Mr Bush before recounts had been concluded in Florida.
Rev Jesse Jackson, who has been a spiritual counsellor to Mr Gore, said he should not concede and he accused the Supreme Court of being "a willing tool of the Bush campaign" that "orchestrated a questionable velvet legal coup".
Mr Jackson also expressed his anger at what he claims were actions to disenfranchise African American voters in the Florida election. He called for "massive non-violent demonstrations" across the nation to coincide with the Martin Luther King holiday in mid-January.
The judgment of the Supreme Court has stunned many legal and political observers by its apparent contradictions and the way it has exposed the ideological rifts between the court's conservative and liberal wings.
The court ruled by seven to two to reverse the decision by the Florida Supreme Court last Friday that all disputed ballots in the state should be hand-recounted. The seven judges said that the varying standards used in different counties violated the equal protection clause in the constitution.
But while the court seemed to be inviting the Florida Supreme Court to set fairer standards, a narrower majority of five to four judges ruled that there was no constitutionally acceptable procedure by which a new recount could take place before the deadline of midnight for selection of the list of presidential electors for the state.
Two judges said that there was still time to have the recounts before the Electoral College meets next Monday.