Saturday Morning News

Harold Evans Puts Historical Perspective on the Florida Recount

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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For another perspective on the Florida recount, we're joined by Harold Evans of New York City. Mr. Evans is the former president of Random House Trade Group and the author of a great book entitled "The American Century Illustrated," a comprehensive view of the 20th century.

He first came to the U.S. from England in 1956 and is considered an expert on American political history.

Mr. Evans, good to have you back with us.

HAROLD EVANS, AUTHOR, "THE AMERICAN CENTURY": OK, a pleasure.

O'BRIEN: I guess we could call this next century, the 21st century, the chad century, so far anyhow.

EVANS: The chad century, right. The swinging chads.

O'BRIEN: Yes, yes. Let's talk, first of all, we can talk about history in just a moment. You had some recent time, as I understand it, with the President on Air Force One.

EVANS: Yes, with President Clinton, that is.

O'BRIEN: Did I say something else? What did I say?

EVANS: No, no, I was just, when you said the President, I thought you might be going to say Bush or Gore.

O'BRIEN: Well, that's a good point. President Clinton, on Air Force One, said you were sort of a fly on the rarified wall of Air Force One. What did you hear? What did you ascertain? What's the mood?

EVANS: Well, the amazing thing was we went to Florida and he got such a fantastic reception. The thought went through my mind that if he hadn't gone to Florida, we wouldn't be pushing through all this business of the recount, because he clearly is enormously popular and got votes for Gore. And I wondered why the Gore campaign wasn't using him more.

But what Clinton said to me on Air Force One over two days in Florida is this, and it sticks in my mind, "Florida is always very good to us," meaning the Democrats. And so he was enormously optimistic that Gore was going to win in Florida. And as I say, I think the reception he got probably added a few hundred votes to the Gore column.

O'BRIEN: All right, well, not only is this a popular election season for folks who live in Chad, I suppose, but most expats, I assume, are watching this a little more intently than normal because they really might have a way of, the election could potentially hinge on them.

EVANS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: I'm curious, you know, your perspective is as a Brit. How are people viewing this overseas, both expats and others?

EVANS: I'll come, I just wanted to say, that interview with Clinton is in "Talk" magazine and a fuller description of his views and his presidency is in there.

The expats are viewing this not with the amount of dismay and despair that many people are in other countries, because in Britain, for instance, they're used to recounts of this kind going on to one vote making the difference. And we appreciate the actual nature of American democracy is that it does take time to resolve itself.

Now, in Eastern European countries, however, where they don't quite understand some of the nuances of the courts, there is tremendous dismay that it could appear like a kind of Guatemalan situation with Secretary Harris coming in.

They don't understand that somebody who has an interest politically could be involved I making crucial decisions.

So that's the part that's causing dismay. And the anti-Democrats in Eastern Europe and Africa and other places are saying look, you see, democracy doesn't work.

So that's a bit of a blow. But so far as the political democracies go, in Western Europe and in England, while they wonder why America, the most technologically advanced country in the world, is reduced to looking through these punch cards, nonetheless, there's enormous sympathy and interest and their reckoning is that whoever wins it's not going to make a great deal of difference.

O'BRIEN: All right, Harold Evans, putting the relative dismay into some perspective. Thank you very much for being with us once again and we look forward to seeing you again some time soon.

EVANS: Thank you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right.

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