He called for Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore to give back the money their campaigns had received from General Electric.

Within five minutes, Polipundit, a conservative Web blogger, had not only called the debate for Mr. Bush, but also the entire election.

But when Fox News called Florida for Mr. Bush at about 2:15 a.m., every other network did the same within minutes.

Plans call for Mr. Bush, if elected, to hold a news conference in Houston Wednesday morning, and then fly to Washington in midafternoon.

That night, every network first called Florida as a win for Vice President Al Gore and then as a win for Mr. Bush.

Mr. McClellan also turned aside calls from Democrats for Mr. Bush to apologize or to dismiss Karl Rove, his senior adviser and deputy chief of staff.

Then they called the state for Mr. Bush.

The law calls for Mr. Bush to decide which areas will receive the raises and the amounts.

Democrats sought to portray their approach as reasonable and called for Mr. Bush to reconsider before sending the bill back to Congress, where Republicans hold enough votes to sustain his position.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, called for Mr. Bush to convene a bipartisan summit meeting on Iraq.