The Sweep: Daley gets down to business

Washington (CNN) - As he drove to a Dunkin' Donuts in Nashville early on Election Day 2000, Bill Daley's reputation for being the calmest guy in the middle of a crisis was being severely put to the test.

It was 6:30 a.m., and Daley had just picked up Don Baer, a last-minute addition to Vice President Al Gore's campaign to help with communications strategy, at his hotel. They decided to get a cup of coffee on their way to Gore's campaign office to begin fueling up for what could be a long night of waiting for election returns.

"It was just the two of us in that car going into the headquarters that morning, and we were talking about what the day might hold," Baer told me.

As a guy who's had two legendary Chicago mayors in his family, Daley thought he had seen everything in politics. But as he sifted through the possibilities with Baer in the car - including one nightmare scenario where Gore could win the electoral vote but lose the popular vote to Republican George W. Bush - Daley grew more and more perplexed.