AL Gore may think he really won the state of Florida, but judging from yesterday’s proceedings in Leon County circuit court, his efforts to overturn the certified results in Florida are probably doomed.

Not because they deserve that fate, although they do. Rather, it’s because it’s extremely unlikely Gore can get what he needs done by Dec. 12, the date on which Florida’s electors must be selected.

That’s 14 days from today. Two weeks. And for Gore to prevail, he must win on every point. And win on appeal. And get thousands of ballots reconsidered in accordance with his desired “dimpled chad” approach. Only then can he overtake George W. Bush’s 537-vote margin. And all this must be completed before Dec. 12.

That’s “a damned near impossible task,” in the words of a senior litigator in Washington.

Why? Well, in all the excitement over Gore’s decision to “contest” Bush’s win in Florida, nobody in the media – including me – understood until yesterday that the contest itself is a full-bore trial before a judge.

A trial means that witnesses must be called. The calling of witnesses means that each side must provide a witness list to the other side as well as to the court. After that’s done, lawyers on each side must have the opportunity to depose those witnesses before the trial begins in what’s called the “discovery” phase.

Those witness lists were not ready yesterday, when the court convened its first hearing. Lawyers for both George W. Bush and Al Gore agreed that it would take “a day or two” to provide the lists.

The Gore team also moved to have the contested ballots moved from the three counties in question to the courthouse, so that the “special master” they wish to see appointed can begin to count the disputed votes. The Bush folks objected to this notion, pointing out that the Gore team was asking the judge to provide a remedy before he had even determined that a remedy was warranted. Lawyers for the three canvassing boards expressed concern about the safety of the ballots.

So the judge set up a separate hearing on that matter for Thursday – which will take up a good deal of time. And that’s even before the trial itself can begin.

And if Gore does prevail in that courtroom, somebody is going to have to count those ballots one by one by one. And all of that must be done by Dec. 12.

Enter the Florida Legislature. It turns out that the blustery threat of that body that it might go into special session to appoint its own electors is more than just bluster. The legislators may have no choice but to do so in order to ensure that Florida electors are present when the Electoral College convenes on Dec. 18, given the tangled nature of the court proceedings.

Bush’s electors have already been certified by law. But if they are somehow thrown into dispute by the Leon County court’s ruling, the new slate of electors may be necessary to secure the Florida franchise.

To do so, the Florida legislators will have to begin their work at the end of this week. Why? Because Gov. Jeb Bush has recused himself in this matter, and thus should not be put in the position of having to sign legislation appointing new electors. But that means, the Legislature will have to pass it and then recess for seven days, after which it automatically becomes law without the governor’s approval.

And because of the complex nature of Florida law and the voting balance of the two houses in Florida, the Legislature would need three days to pass that law – after which the seven-day recess would presumably be called.

That’s a total of 10 days. In order to prevent the possible disenfranchisement of Florida’s voters, in other words, the Florida legislature would have to begin the process on Saturday, 10 days before the Dec. 12 deadline.

If, by some miracle, the legal process can be completed in time, the Florida Legislature could then reconvene in emergency session and thereby violate the recess – thus suspending the bill.

It’s hard to see how the Legislature could fail to act, given these conditions. And it is “damned near impossible” to see how Gore can get everything he asks for and in a timely enough manner.

There is one wild card here – a lawsuit in Seminole County demanding that all absentee ballots be thrown out because election officials there allowed Republicans to fill in voter registration numbers missing from the ballot request forms.

But though it’s difficult to guess anything in this matter, it seems highly unlikely that a judge would toss out all absentee ballots because of a transgression by a county official. Rather, it would seem more likely that the county official would be sanctioned by the court, given that nobody claims the absentee votes themselves were cast illegally or fraudulently.

So, in all likelihood, it really is over. Never mind the bluster. Consider the dates.

E-mail: podhoretz@nypost.com