so those who now can vote early would have easy access, should they decide to do so. we'll continue to follow both of the candidates on the campaign trail. for now stay with us right here on msnbc for further reports. nbc news has projected al gore the winner in florida. we knew it was going to big. >> florida has been prematurely called. >> we realized this story is getting bigger. >> nbc news is taking vice president gore out of the win column. >> there were so many headlines that could have come out of november 7. >> hillary clinton, that she put her hat in the ring to run for senate from new york. >> there is a new senator from the state of new york, her name

is hillary rodham clinton. >> the death of a senate candidate, a governor, by itself that would have been a huge story. >> ashcroft lost to the first dead man ever appointed to the u.s. senate. >> as news coverages overwhelms the news, one of the biggest drug busts in u.s. history is under way at an abandoned missile silo in rural kansas. >> at the time i don't believe anyone else in the country knew what was going on here. they were probably watching the election results. it truly is a very similar to the breaking bad tv series. i mean they had the capability to make 2.8 billion dosage units, with a b. that's enough lsd to get every man, woman and child in the entire western hemisphere high. >> the biggest story can become no longer the biggest story in a matter of seconds. >> candidates sprint for the finish, it is a blitz indeed.

>> everybody knows it's so close. >> gore and bush try to get the most out of the time remaining, each stumping in the battleground states which could determine the outcome of tomorrow's election. >> after the clinton years and lewinsky and white water, there was this partisan fervor. >> give us a chance to restore order to the white house. >> it was a red-blue thing going on at the time. i was told to ditch the jacket, roll up the sleeves and we were full bore into presidential politics. >> florida is key again. >> it was going to be a turning point in america in some form or fashion, i think some people sensed that. >> thank you! >> while gore and bush continue to battle it out on the campaign trail, dea agents on a covert operation are quietly moving in on the tiny town of wambego, kansas. >> the assistant chief at the

time mike baker stopped me and he told me there was a lot of state act 2i69 with some out of state cars and some of them are pretty fancy suvs and he had stopped some of these vehicles for speeding and he had identified them as dea agents. and told me they were up near the missile base watching it. we didn't know at the time if they were on surveillance or what they were doing. we knew they were around, we knew there were a quite a few of them. >> these concrete bunkers for these missile silos, you're so far away from the neighbors, there's no odors. and also out there in the flat plains of kansas, you can pretty easily see if somebody's following you in a vehicle. >> i went up to the missile base and i made contact with an individual with the dea. i was pretty aggressive to find out what they're doing. and they eventually told me that i needed to leave. i was not to interfere with their investigation. >> but people were speculating.

>> there were some rumors that there could be some drug activity, but nothing that would indicate what was coming. >> watch out for the power of hillary rodham clinton being elected senator from the state of new york. >> 1,300 miles east of wamega, kansas, people of new york are focused on one of the most contentious senate races. >> i am honored today to announce my candidacy for the united states senate from new york. >> a lot of people were skeptical of the idea of a first lady running for senate. >> that race was supposed to be the greatest senate race of all time. because her initial opponent was rudy giuliani. >> arkansas is the place for them, i don't think it's new york. i think that new york isn't going to end up voting for the senate for someone.

>> clinton had zero ties to new york. she was a chicago girl. >> i may be knew to the neighborhood, but i'm not new to your concerns. >> hillary did come into that campaign with not just carpet bagging, but all the baggage if you will coming from bill clinton's presidency. she had some fairly high negatives. the parallel to that is of course in 2016, she is the most unpopular candidate ever to run for president other than one person. donald trump. >> in missouri, three weeks before election day, a plane crash has thrown another hotly contested senate race into chaos. >> it is with great sadness that we report that earlier this evening, a plane believed to be carrying governor mel carnahan, his son roger and senior campaign advisor chris everette went down in jefferson county.

there were no survivors. >> jefferson county sheriff glen boyer says several witnesses reported seeing the twin engine cessna flying low and later heard what they thought was a crash and explosions. carnahan has a wife, four grown children and two grand children. >> nobody knew how to handle that, whether mel carnahan was able to be taken off the ballot or not, whether there was time to get a replacement. >> carnahan was running against john ashcroft in one of the most watched senate races in the country. >> 2004 was quite a year, it had some interesting kwi ing quirks. i guess you could consider electing a dead man an interesting quirk. >> over in kansas, the drug enforcement agency prepares to make the biggest bust in history. >> in dea, we always try to work with the state and local police as much as possible.

but when you have a case as big as this one, we sometimes wait until the last minute just so somebody doesn't actually say something. we didn't start the coordination with the local police until we were able to conduct the raid. >> the dea's target, suspected drug manufacturer, william leonard picard. >> william leonard picard was truly an anomaly. this was a man who was a buddhist monk, he had a master's degree from harvard. he was a vegetarian. just not what you would usually picture as a drug lord, especially one that's producing over 90% of the world's lsd. lsd is considered even more dangerous than a meth lab as far as chemical contamination. we didn't want to execute a raid for safety reasons. we wanted to get him out of there. >> it was arranged for picard to come and pick up the lab, and we was going to transport it to another location.

we pulled up in a rider truck to transport the lab and the lab equipment. we didn't want to reveal that the dea was on to the case, so we arranged to have two highway patrol officers pull over both the rider truck and the car that picard was driving. one way we did underestimate picard is that we didn't know he was a marathon runner. he started to race away, but then he jumped out and ran into the kansas woods. now we had a man hunt. >> we're waiting for governor bush, but obviously he's going to speak after vice president gore. >> i got a call from a network correspondent saying don't concede the florida numbers are wrong. >> al gore is, but still is planning to be here and give this speech, which we certainly expect will be a concession speech.

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after all of the shouting and all the scandal, we can begin again. >> we start with the democrats going in the right direction. >> by this time tomorrow, the candidates will be back in their home states awaiting the results. but right now we're waiting on the battle ground states. but it was clear this was going to be a close race. >> don't forget it wasn't just bush and gore. hillary clinton was running for u.s. senate. >> it's been an emotional day here for the folks that live here. >> another headline would have been the death of a senate candidate, a governor three weeks before the election. >> there's so much going on, your vote is going to make a difference. >> one of the things i have seen in 30 years in this business is that things move fast. >> both sides have been put under the microscope over the

last few weeks, now it's george w. bush's past that's being looked at. >> in the final frenzied push to the bush-gore face-off, a past scandal emerges, something that could break the dead heat. >> on the thursday night before the election, there came a 30-year-old story about george w. bush being arrested for driving under the influence. >> they want to know if there's more to this. george w. bush's 1976 dui arrest in which he paid $150 fine and had his license suspended for a time. >> it was so close to the election, there was no real polling on its effect. >> we have gotten dozens of e-mails asking how mr. bush handled that in the past. >> there was no measuring what the impact would be. we're going to take a break from decision 2000 for just a moment to give you some of the ore headlines outside the presidential race. >> the one we're all talking about is mel carnahan. >> the death of mel carnahan just three weeks before the election triggers a crisis. >> under missouri law, it's too

close to election day to take carnahan's name off the ballot. so there's a possibility that his name could win. >> many republicans may challenge, saying you have to be an inhabitant of a state when elected and how can a dead man be an inhabitant of the state. >> 14 days before the election, the new governor of missouri offers to appoint the governor's grieving widow to take the term. >> it's my intention to ask jean carnahan if she would fill that term. >> a lot of the political process rubbed off on her. i mean she had just spent eight years in the governor's mansion. >> missourians will reaffirm their belief in self-government by going to the polls to vote. my husband's name will be on that ballot. everything in our lives changed. we had to plan for three funerals that week, and then we had to of course make the decision as to were we going to accept the offer. >> when i think about dad, i think what i'll always remember more than anything else, is without fail, before he would

walked out the door in the morning to go to work, every day, he would say, don't let the fire go out. >> robin carnahan said that her dad would always keep the fire going at night to keep the house warm. >> so i'm here today to say, dad, we promise we won't let the fire go out. >> as you know, this has been a very difficult time for me and my family. i made a commercial, i didn't know even then whether i was going to accept or not. and so the fella who was making the commercial said, well, why don't you make one in which you say, yes, you'll do it. and then go do it where you would write that not. what he wants all of us to do to keep fighting with all the strength we can muster with the values and ideals that he lived

for. we did one that said yes. and then we stopped and had a white to eat and he said are you ready to do the next one? and i said, no, i think we'll just go with the first one. >> in any other election, if you didn't have bush v gore, then hillary clinton would have been first by a long shot. >> if he wins, his wife will actually be appointed to that job. >> it felt like the third most important story. >> i have been told it's an ongoing federal investigation, and they have asked for our cooperation by not commenting. >> even farther from the media glare in tiny womigo, kansas a fugitive suspect in a massive dea drug bust is on the run. dea summoned local law enforcement to assist in the man hunt. >> chief of police came across the police scanner, all police officers and all reserve officers meet up in front of the city hospital.

i figured that someone had walked away from the nursing home next door. >> when i first drove up, i realized the dea probably wasn't here to help locate someone who walked away from the nursing home. >> when we went to the hospital that night, they briefed us, and at that time i believe we were told how big it was. >> one of the dea agents turned around and asked who i was with. and i introduced myself, i said i'm mike portel with the times. and he essentially said, oh, bleep, the bleeping media. >> i think that's when we knew this was a huge operation. >> he was a brilliant chemist, very similar to the "breaking bad" tv series. only he was making lsd instead of methamphetamine. lsd is much more complicated than methamphetamine, they had the capability to make 2.8

billion dosage units, with a b. and that was enough to get every man, woman and child in the western hemisphere high. >> he had the opportunity, you know, harvard education, wealthy family, but he also had a great cover for his drug trafficking. he was a drug policy analyst from the university of california in l.a. he was so smart he went over to checks slovak -- czechoslovakia, and that's how he had such a big production agency. >> the dea uses mobile forces to try to find him by car. >> we were walking door to door trying to find out where he had went. wasn't found that night, even though the helicopter had an infrared on it to detect body heat. >> there were 50 law enforcement officers and hounds searching the kansas woods for him.

>> at the time i don't think anyone else in the country knew what was going on here. they were probably watching the election. i still don't think people realize how big of an event this was. >> i didn't even want to do my work outside that night, knowing that somebody could be out there. >> most of the town knew there was a bad guy running loose, but that's all they knew.

it's too close to election day to take carnahan's name off the ballot. >> you have to be an inhabitant of the state when elected and how can a dead man be an inhabitant of the state? >> detectives say that night two men were seen leaving this missile site. >> election 2000, in every way and since a barn burner. you can see the lines of people waiting to vote. nothing is easy for george w. bush of texas or vice president al gore. >> wow, that was fast, look at that.

>> november 7, 2000. an election day like no other begins. >> among the high profile races, the first lady of the united states, new york senate. >> hillary clinton's run has been full of twists and turns, since the beginning of the campaign, her expected opponent was rudy giuliani. but he drops a bombshell. >> when i was first told i had cancer, i thought this was going to be a much easier decision. this is not the right time for me to run for office. >> in his place runs a moderate candidate from long island. >> today i announce that i am a candidate for the united states senate. >> at the time it was a remarkable campaign, not just because the first lady was running for the senate, but also because it was at that point it was the most expensive senate campaign in all of u.s. history. >> i will neither raise nor

accept a penny of outside money, i will ask all outside groups to stay away if my opponent is willing to do the same. >> anybody who followed that election in 2000, can't forget that first debate. >> let's just get this deal done right now, right here, here it is, let's sign it. it's a new york freedom from self money pac. >> he tried to get her sign a pledge about money in politics. >> i want her to sign it. >> i will be happy to when you give me the signed letters. >> here they are right now. >> we'll shake them. >> i want your signature. >> he walked across the stage and he thought she was being tough and confrontational. >> while america is looking at new york, why don't you show us some leadership. >> he wagged his finger at her. >> it looked like somebody trying to intimidate a much shorter woman. >> it was perhaps the most embarrassing gaff ever seen in a televised public debate. >> in new york city, the initial reports say voting has been brisk and turnout high. >> as the polls opened on

election day, clinton has surged to a 10 point lead. meanwhile in the tiny town in kansas, the dea tracks a fugitive drug lord. >> now it turns into a man hunt for a fugitive. they were looking for over 18 hours. >> over 50 federal and local law enforcement officers scour the country side for drug kingpin william leonard picard. >> we were looking through neighborhoods. >> the dea's november 7 takedown of picard's associate todd skinner turned informant. >> todd skinner was also from a very wealthy family, and he convinced his mother to buy this decommissioned nuclear missile

silo as a front to produce springs for the spring company in oklahoma that his mother had owned. but i don't think it was used much for spring production, instead it was turned into an underground palace for drug experimentation and sex parties. he put in a 2,000 gallon hot tub, and they had a lot of exotic animals in there, lamas and peacocks and stuff like that. >> todd skinner was a very flamboyant fellow. he was very unusual. living out there at the missile base, there was curiosity as to what went on out there. >> skinner was arrested. >> he contacted dea headquarters through his attorney to try and get an immunity agreement and he ended up as an informant against picard. >> 18 hours after picard escapes from authorities, law enforcement gets a tip from an farmer about four miles away. >> we started going door to

door, walking neighborhoods, talking to people. then a few miles southwest of the town, a local farmer found an individual in one of his vehicles. >> in florida, the polls have barely been opened and the first reports of voting irregularities began to surface. >> i got a call from my sister early in the morning who lived in boca raton, florida at the time and who said i think the ballot here is very confusing. i just looked at it and looked at it and looked at it and it took me about 10 to 15 minutes to try to make sure that i voted for al gore. we didn't have the name for it at that point, but it was the butterfly ballot. >> they had that so-called butterfly ballot where a lot of people presumably voted for al gore, who was like the second name down, but the way it was done, they actually voted for pat buchanan. >> we started looking into it, but there was nothing you could do about it. nor did anybody think it would make that much difference.

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right now hillary clinton is attending a get out the vote event with jennifer lopez. earlier in daytona beach, hillary clinton calling jim comey's decision -- accuse the justice department of trying to protect her. for now, back to in other news.

>> we're so grateful for your support, we understand we can't do it alone. >> we're going to win this election and we're going to win the future for american families. >> there was a death of a senate candidate, a governor, that by itself would have been a pretty big headline. hillary clinton, she put her hat in the ring to run for senate from new york, but then the biggest story can no longer become the biggest story in a matter of seconds. >> as the election dominates the headlines, the hunt for william leonard picard stretches into its 18th hour. law enforcement receives a tipoff. >> i had no idea i would be involved. when we got through eating dinner, i went to the garage, i

walk over and found him in my truck and i politely asked him what the hell are you doing in my truck? and he wanted to go to manhat n manhattan. i said i can take you to manhattan, but i have to tell my wife. instead of talking to her, i talked to the police and they immediately came out. this fugitive took off running when he heard the police cars sirens. >> but this time it was a flat field and one of them raced in with a vehicle and headed him off. and finally he threw his hands up and said i give up, i'm cold, i'm tired. >> officers arrested 55-year-old william picard on drug charges. >> so the sheriff was unlike any prisoner he had had before, this guy, he wanted to wear sandals and eat a vegetarian diet and kind of stuck out from your normal run of the mill prisoners in the city jail.

>> the story of picard's capture is overshadowed as drama at the polls eats up the news cycle. in missouri, voter turnout could tip the scales in a highly unusual senate race. >> voting is so heavy in st. louis, the democratic party is filing an emergency petition asking that the hours of voting be extended in st. louis to accommodate huge crowds. >> millionses of missourians were voting. >> it was chaos, the police had to be called, that was why, the democrats in the city of st. louis had gone to court to try to keep the polls open. >> the case is probably going to go on all night. three weeks ago the democratic governor mel carnahan dieded in a plane crash, at the time of his plane crash, he was five percentage points behind. since then that five point lead has evaporated, people here

saying missouri could turn not just the senate election, but the national election. >> the very same day as the election, a popular internet company makes a stunning announcement. >> other economic news tonight, there is a new victim of the falling fortunes of the new economy, pets.com is closing down. >> the demise of pets.com is one of the first needless to punch a hole in the internet bubble. >> basically you had a new attitude towards business. people were investing in companies that showed promise that didn't necessarily have revenue. >> internet mania, that shooter lived rush by investors to pump money into anything with a dotcom in its name and by those companies to turn around and pour that cash into advertising. >> there was this whole new lexicon for talking about this, not just in the tech world, dotcom became part of the main stream terminology. >> pets.com will sell off a majority of its assets and lay off 255 of its 320 employees. >> pets.com was one of the first

e commerce companies, we sold nempg fr everything from food to toys. >> their business plan was to reach as many people as possible to create volume, but they were losing money on every piece of pet food they sold. >> pets.com reported sales of $9.4 million. but those sales cost them $9.6 million before expenses like marketing and administration. >> it wasn't about the revenue, what it was about was perception, and they perhaps more than any other company had a hold on perception, exemplified by this soft puppet mascot, at the 2000 super bowl, they had what was probably the most talked about ad. and then by november of that year, they were self liquidating, it happened that quickly. he was the perfect symbol for that era. the steep rise and then the rapid fall. >> what's your idea of which investments are safe bets now? >> certainly not internet stocks. >> there was in enormous

snowball effect. basically you had one of many that were rapidly closing their doors. >> out of the hundreds of tech company ipos that were in business by 1999, only one in six were still in business. whoever won the presidential election was destined to inherit the fallout of the dotcom bubble. but a clear winner has yet to emerge. >> it's already clear here at 7:30 eastern time in new york that the road to 270 electoral votes for either george w. bush or al gore will be long and torturous before the evening is out. connecticut, no surprise, al gore. in delaware, gore also the winner there. kansas, the projected winner is texas governor george w. bush. next texas, george w. bush is the winner there. >> every election is good television, because it's a suspense program.

the election of 2000 was something more than that, because in addition to the suspense and the suspense was enormous, maybe more than we have ever had before on television, because of how close the race was. >> we're going to now project an important win for vice president al gore, nbc news projects that he wins the 25 electoral votes in the state of florida. >> it's really hard to cover an election that close and feel the pressure of a, getting it on quickly and b getting it right. made history when it sold for a recordrice of just under 0 million. and now, another mcedes-benz makes history selling at jusover $30,000. anto think this one acal s a surround-sound stereo. th16la. ase e meedesenz aler. month at your l rcedes-benz. the best or nothing.

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>> an important win for vice president al gore, nbc news projects that he wins the 25 electoral votes in the state of florida. a very, very important state for al gore, and now the pressure is on. >> florida has called for vice president al gore and gore's march to the white house picks up momentum. >> that sent a little bit of a shock wave of panic through the headquarters. carl rowe to his credit recognized that there was something wrong with the results. >> and i would also suggest that florida has been prematurely called, i thought it was a little irresponsible of the networks to call before the votes were counted in the western part of florida. >> florida, pennsylvania and michigan, in his column, vice president al gore begins to build the foundation that could get him to 270 electoral votes. >> we had set up a speech room prep room for al gore to practice his victory speech. i told eli addy who was the

speechwriter that we also needed an alternative version. >> the presidential election enters a state of uncertainty. dramatic results from other races race for the headlines. the results from other races reach the headlines. >> thank you, new york. >> there is a new senator from the state of new york, her name is hillary rodham clinton. >> hillary clinton was the first female senator elected from new york. when she was running i believe there were nine female senators, the year she was elected, it was up to 13. so she was part of a gradual growthf female senators in the senate. >> 16 months, three debates, two opponents and six black pantsuits later, because of you, here we are. >> her vote margin was over 800,000 votes. it was roughly 55 to 43%. that's pretty close to a landslide in most people's books. >> we have a lot of work to do and i am looking forward to doing that work with all of you from one end of the state to the other.

>> it was such a momentous time for her, because she knew where she was going. >> thank you, thank you, thank you. and god bless you all. thank you and good night. >> i think she knew then that she would be running for the presidency. >> as hillary clinton wins her seat in the senate, the drug busts in kansas begins to wind down, but with william picard safely behind bars, the his former accomplice creates his own horrific headlines. >> there's so many tangents on this case that are so bizarre. todd skinner, after picard was convicted, he fell in love with this girl who was a bondage stripper, who was a stripper outside the missile silo and they went down to tulsa, oklahoma and he had a little pulpit down there where he would give catholic communion to kids in this group and there was a young, very attract ty young man

named brandon green his wife was having an affair with, and he found out about it and he gave this brandon green a knockout drug in the communion wafer. the poor kid, he woke up naked, tied up, gagged in the hotel room in oklahoma and he tortured the kid. and he dropped him off in texas and they left him for dead. >> skinner is brought to justice in 2003. and convicted of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. he's now serving life plus 90 in oklahoma. >> nbc news is now taking florida out of vice president gore's column and putting it back in the too close to call. >> it had to be the political equivalent of an earthquake. all of the networks were pretty trusting of this whole business of polling to have to flip it.

that's like cracking the tablets with the 10 commandments. >> there was this kind of this moment of like, what's going on here? do we not have a winner too close to call? even then, too close to call, you're like, well, they're going to get this figured out in just a few minutes. >> yeb jeb bush who's the governor of the state of florida, we were told just a few minutes ago that jeb bush, told his dad president h.w. bush that we wouldn't have a call before midnight or 1:00 a.m. >> the retraction was like a shot of adrenaline, hope was alive, and we all got energized again. >> we have got a stunning piece of news for you. in missouri, nbc news is projecting that mel carnahan who was killed in a plane crash has been elected over john ashcroft, the republican incumbent, that means that jean carnahan will go to the united states senate. there will be a special election in two years. >> they were calling the race in

missouri for mel carnahan and of course there was not the usual cheers that you would hear. there were only tears. >> jean carnahan was the first female u.s. senator from the state of missouri. missourians clearly realized that if they voted for mel carnahan, they knew that jean carnahan was going to replace him in washington, d.c. >> that is a pickup for the democrats, so there remains the possibility that the democrats before this night is out could get close to if not take control by one vote or so in the united states senate. >> in just 20 minutes later, the election takes another unexpected turn. >> there's no question that in a time of peace and prosperity like this, it's possible for the country to have such a division. >> doris, doris, doris. >> uh-oh, something's happened. >> george bush is the president elect of the united states, he has won the state of florida, according to our projectations.

>> that was an incredible moment for us. a lot of hugging, a lot of high-fives, a lot of tears, rushed out of the headquarters building on to congress street to go back up to the state capitol, which was beautifully back lit. it was 40 degrees and raining and a miserable night, nobody cared. just won the presidency of the united states. >> al gore stood up and said let's get this thing over with, i'm going to go down, put my suit on and we're going over to the war memorial and i'm conceding. and that began the beginning of a comedy of errors. >> we are expecting the vice president to show up any moment. >> the vice president called up bush and conceded before he left for the memorial. >> we did see some dejected types walk away, but the vast majority of people did say here. >> i went downstairs to get my raincoat because it was raining, i missed the motorcade and i got a call from a network correspondent saying don't

concede, the florida numbers are wrong. >> apparently, al gore is still planning to be here and give this speech which we certainly expect to be a concession speech. >> so i called carter in the motorcade and said we can't concede. >> we are waiting for governor bush, but obviously he's going to speak after vice president gore. >> and he said to me, by the way, where are you? i said i'm in the hotel, i missed the motorcade. he said you have to get here. my assistant drove me there, and i kept pointing at my secret service badge and jumping over the barriers, and the vice president wasn't answering his phone. >> i have just been given a two-minute warning for the appearance of al gore. he is this ourn?

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>> there's a new senator from the state of new york, her name is hillary rodham clinton. mel carnahan has been elected over john ashcroft.

we're going to stay a little longer until we hear from george w. bush and vice president al gore. >> with the presidency hanging in the balance, al gore's campaign strategist rushes to warn him not to concede. >> the only thing you could do because the vice president wasn't answering his phone, was call david moorehouse, who was the trip director, that was when he gets out of the car, you have to take him to the holding room. he says we have to go to the holding room. i was breathless in the holding room as he was wrapping up his on conversation with george w. bush where he was withdrawing his concession. >> tip was probably saying to al, are you going to kiss it goodbye now over 500 votes? or are you going to go out there and get a recount. >> my brother says i won, my brother jeb, and gore said, i

don't think your brother gets to decide who's the president of the united states. >> it is in fact true that the vice president has called to recant his concession. >> the secretary of state has al gore trailing the president elect in the state that proved to be pivotal by 565 votes. that's not even a wide spot in the road. >> there are still some votes that have not been counted. >> just an hour or so ago, the tv networks called this race for governor bush. but it now appears that their call was premature. >> so when the networks called florida for george bush, the margin as we left the headquarters was about 50,000 votes. by the next morning the margin was 1,200 votes, with 6 million votes being cast, that was certainly within the range of an automatic recount in florida. i remember telling my wife that based on all the other recounts that i had done in house and senate races, that this would be

white hot through the weekend and it wouldn't last more than ten days or maybe two weeks at the most. i was wrong. >> for the next five weeks, the press frenzy around the recount continues. but in kansas, the story that didn't catch the headlines comes to an end. william leonard picard is convicted of conspiracy to manufacture lsd and possession with intent to distribute lsd and is now serving two consecutive life sentences. >> the significance of this case today, here we are, 15 years later, and we still see lsd seizures 95% less than they were before these characters were arrested. which is why i consider this to be the most successful case in drug law enforcement history. >> on november 9, jean carnahan

gives her first press conference as senator designate of missouri. >> yesterday i began a new chapter in my life, and though the pain and the tears still come at unexpected times, i now see a renewed purpose to my life. my first press conference after the election was held in jefferson city, i was wondering how the press was going to accept me, what they were going to do. and i found out that they were rather tender with me. but then as the press conference came to a close, one of them got a little braver and said since you have never held public office, could it be that maybe you're not, and he paused a bit, qualified for this job? the thought of that really angered me. >> a lot of people spent their lives underestimate my husband and i suggest they not start doing that with me. >> all the eyebrows in the room shot up. i felt like i had just figured out what the 10-second sound

bite should look like and i went to washington. >> and the polls despite unprecedented voter turnout, couldn't stop carnahan's victory in missouri. but it may have impacted other races. >> al gore was one of only two democrats in missouri who were running state wide who lost that night. what was intrigue to me, and i always thought this was overlooked. al gore barely lost missouri. if he had carried missouri, it wouldn't have mattered if he carried florida or not. >> it is a long way from over, an american presidential race that has now entered a new round of campaigning after election day because there still is no clear winner and there are still votes to be counted in florida and beyond. >> everybody in the election business says if you get a very, very, very, very close election, it exposes all kinds of problems. >> we have a voting system in this country that's still a

mess. >> voters were con fused by what they called an illegal ballot. as a result 19,000 ballots were tossed out because they contained a double punch or double votes for presidential candidates. >> several weeks later we got to saying we want every ballot recounted. in the meantime, as this process is going on, we have the phenomenon of the hanging chad, which led to the historic television pictures of people going like this. it was very, very close, it was in a state where the election processes are defective and you had a huge controversy about what ballots to count and which not to count. >> what happened in 2000 with the president of the united states coming down to the state of florida was something nobody could see. totally unanticipated and

probably will be unique in our history. >> in a country of more than 275 million people, the presidency may be settled by a few hundred votes. and no one is just sure when. >> these voters wanting new election -- >> election day headlines of voter fraud, hanging chads and dubious results will continue to dominate the news for weeks to come. >> we knew there were issues in florida. i don't think at the time we knew the u.s. supreme court would determine who the president was going to be. >> i george walker bush do solemnly swear, that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states. >> what happened to al gore is a once in a million kind of thing? >> thank you, thank you, thank you. and god bless you all. thank you and god night. >> hillary's success in 2000 was clearly to many, many people and

it certainly was to me, breaking the glass ceiling of running for president. >> there were so many headlines that could have come out of november 7. all those, you know, couldn't compare to, we don't have a president. >> michael jackson died today, he was only 50 years old. >> this is equivalent to elvis passing away. >> this was a huge international story. >> the stories you're about to see were reported on june 25 and 26th 2009. >> think of the influence and power of world news. >> the news of the death rockets across the world and other things were buried in its wake. >> so many things got overshadow on that day. >> so many things -- actress farrah fawcet has lost her three year battle with cancer. >> mark sanford revealed yesterday that he was in argentina