Prologue
Florida Sunrise
The sun rising over the Atlantic casts a peach glow on the Lake Ida Shopping
Plaza. Its architectural motif is typical of the lesser strip malls in
Florida’s Palm Beach County—ersatz stucco, with a roof of battered tiles.
The first rays of dawn land on Good Stuff Furniture, where factory-closeout
sofas and love seats are sold on layaway. One storefront over, engineers and
hard hats arrive early at the construction office for the job of widening I-95,
the truck-choked superhighway whose low rumble and smoggy haze never entirely
leave this commercial square. The medical office of Dr. Jean-Claude Tabuteau is
open only at night, to serve his working-class Haitian clientele, men and women
who spend their days changing sheets and watering lawns at the resorts on the
other side of the highway.
On the morning of ... read full excerpt from Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election ebook
