The Bush-Kerry presidential race of 2004 was close, but not as close, thank heavens, as 2000. Still, when America went to bed on election night, Senator Kerry had not conceded. Whoever won Ohio would win the presidency. There was talk that the Democrats might protest the vote in that state, which the networks had called for Bush.

I was on the way to the dentist the next morning when I got a call from Andy Card, President Bush’s White House chief of staff. My heart stopped. “Mr Secretary,” asked Andy Card, “would you mind calling Vernon Jordan to see if he would encourage Senator Kerry to concede?”

I’ve known Vernon Jordan a long time. He’s a mover and shaker in Washington with close ties to the Democratic Party, a deep friendship with Bill Clinton, and a wonderful sense of humour. Right after Governor Clinton won the 1992 election, Vernon came to my house to start talks about the presidential transition. To all appearances, Bush-Cheney had defeated Kerry-Edwards by healthy margins in both the popular and electoral votes. The networks had called the election for the GOP, and they were right this time. George W. wound up with 50.6 per cent of the popular vote (Kerry took 48.1 per cent) and 286 electoral votes to Kerry’s 252.

On Wednesday morning, however, Senator Kerry had yet to concede. He had his eyes on Ohio and its 20 electoral votes. When the counting ended that morning, the President was leading there by about 136,000 votes. The senator was said to be holding out hope that uncounted provisional ballots could give him the Buckeye State, which in turn would give him the Electoral College and the Presidency.

Andy’s call to me was clear evidence that in politics, as in diplomacy, there are back channels. “Sure,” I said, “I’ll give him a call. It took a while to track Vernon down by telephone. When I reached him, he was on the eleventh tee at Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters tournament. He didn’t say he would or would not talk to Senator Kerry, but my suspicion is that he either weighed in or was about to when the senator called President Bush to concede at about 11.00am.