The morphed face of George W. Bush and Al Gore on the cover of Newsweek’s special election issue. Steve Walkowiak for Newsweek, November 20 Presidential elections seem way too long even to the political junkies who make their living covering the campaigns. Whatever their political beliefs, by late October, they, like most of the voters, just want the fight for the White House to be over. The editors at Newsweek are no different, and for a few minutes in the early morning hours of November 8, 2000, we were delighted that the election had come to an end. For months we had planned for that night. In the next few hours we expected to close a special issue of the magazine that would hit the streets that Thursday and include the “inside story” of the campaign. Several Newsweek reporters had received in-depth access to the campaigns by promising that nothing from their reporting would be revealed until after Election Day, and those chapters were written and already at the printer. We’d selected and prepared a cover that featured Al Gore, assuming he’d won, and another that would declare “President Bush.” Just in case, we’d also designed covers that would work if one candidate won the popular vote and the other carried the Electoral College. None of that would matter, though, when veteran investigative reporter Mike Isikoff rushed back into the Wallendatorium (Newsweek’s top editors’ offices, nicknamed after the high-flying Wallenda brothers) and declared, “It isn’t over yet.” Isikoff had been looking at the Florida Secretary of State’s web site, and he saw what Gore’s staff would discover at about the same time: Florida required an automatic recount if there was less than a 0.5 percent victory margin, and, with the vote razor close, that was a certainty. Exhausted as we had been only minutes before, every Newsweek staffer working that night was suddenly energized. Family trips were quickly canceled (the magazine had expected to be closed for a few days after the special issue was produced), reporters were dispatched to Florida, and editors began debating how we would capture the confusion and craziness of this bizarre election on the cover. Should we feature Bush’s picture or Gore’s? Photo illustrator Steve Walkowiak produced a stunning answer. At the suggestion of Sarah Harbutt, our director of photography, Walkowiak created a composite image with half Bush’s face on one side and half Gore’s on the other. The design generated a lot of mail and even a joke from Jay Leno. “Did you see the cover of Newsweek?” he asked in his monologue. “It’s half Gore, half Bush. Think about it – what a nightmare this would be…. You’d have a know-it-all who gets everything wrong.” Once again, Newsweek had captured the zeitgeist of the nation. It was a very satisfying moment for our staff, which had worked tirelessly throughout the year to provide the best possible political coverage. We’d expanded our reporting to focus not only on the unexpected contests between Bill Bradley and Gore, John McCain and Bush, and Jesse Ventura and Ralph Nader, but also on the key policy initiatives. We featured many issues on the cover, including the death penalty, the Supreme Court, and prescription drugs. Not all of our efforts were in print. As a result of our alliance with MSNBC, Newsweek’s political team, led by Howard Fineman, Evan Thomas, and Jon Alter, offered commentary on television more frequently than ever before. Throughout the year we used our web site (Newsweek.MSNBC.com) to break news and give political junkies immediate contact with our reporters and editors. On Election Night our six hours of “live chats” were so popular that our servers almost crashed. For the five weeks following Election Day, we happily worked around the clock, even delaying publication by 24 hours one Sunday when Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris opened her office to certify the recount results. Each issue included reporting from behind the scenes, and we tried to add extra value by asking our talented writer Evan Thomas to tell the story in narrative form. Each week Evan and his team produced a new chapter, taking the reader inside the meetings and mania that would eventually land George W. Bush in the White House. Readers responded to our efforts, sending us more mail and email feedback than they had at any other time during 2000. For us, that was the perfect end to an incredible story and a great year.

	Gore-Bradley election primary debate. Najlah Feanny /Saba for Newsweek, November 20
	Demonstrators in Florida protesting ballot recounts. Najlah Feanny /Saba for Newsweek, December 18

American swimmer Misty Hyman (right) celebrating her gold medal at the Sydney Olympics. Lori Adamski /Peek for Newsweek, October 2 Palestinian youths battling Israeli Army forces on the West Bank. Najlah Feanny /Saba for Newsweek, October 23