The cliffhanger conclusion to the presidential race left some of the champagne on ice for hundreds of Americans who gathered from 7am yesterday at an election party in Hong Kong's Ritz-Carlton hotel.
With the election result still undecided, the party was shut down, brass band and all, to make way for a wedding.
'I am behind Bush because I like what he did for Texas - I used to work in a nursing home and I know,' said Li Slough, a confident Republican voter from Mr Bush's hometown of Midland, Texas.
Some of the Americans who spent hours watching the narrow race come down to a couple of thousand votes in the state of Florida were less sanguine about the prospect of a Bush presidency for the next four years.
'The way I see it, this election is the beginning of the end of a golden era in America,' said a consultant from Manhattan, New York, while watching Al Gore's hopes fade. 'I'm frankly glad to be in Hong Kong - far away.'
Many admitted and regretted their failure to apply for an absentee voting ballot.