1. Bill Clinton: the First Baby-Boomer President
1. In the 1992 presidential election, the
Democrats chose Bill Clinton
for president along with Al Gore for V.P. They were
the first baby boomer presidential candidates.
1. Clinton carried baggage—accused womanizing,
sampling marijuana as a youth, avoiding the draft for Vietnam).
2. The Democrats moved away from their
extreme-liberal positions more "toward the center." They advocated
economic growth, a strong defense, and anti-crime measures.
2. George H. W. Bush sought reelection. J. Danforth Quayle was nominated as V.P. candidate.
1. The Republicans championed ending the Cold
War, success in the Persian Gulf, and focused on "family values" and
claimed that "character matters", thus Clinton and his baggage should
not be elected.
3. Ross Perot rose as a significant third party candidate.
A tech-company billionaire who spent his own money campaigning, he ran on
one main issue: the U.S. must get the debt under control.
4. Bill Clinton won the election, 374 to 168, because of two reasons…
1. The poor economy was the #1 issue—bad news for Bush, good for Clinton. Clinton
had a slogan to remind his staff, "It's the economy, stupid."
2. Ross Perot took votes away from George H.W.
Bush. Perot received 19%
of the popular vote. Most Perot supporters would've voted Republican if he'd
not been in the election.
5. Both houses of Congress also went to the
Democrats.
6. Minorities also did well in 1992. Carol Moseley-Braun was the first woman ever elected to the
Senate. There were minorities and women in the president's cabinet, including
the first female attorney general, Janet Reno.
1. Clinton would also appoint Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court giving it a second
female justice.
2. A False Start for Reform
1. Clinton quickly pressed to allow homosexuals
in the military. He had to draw back a bit and settle with the compromise of a
"don't ask, don't tell" policy. Homosexuals were still banned
if they said they were gay, but no one would ask. Thus, a homosexual could
enter the military without having to lie.
2. One of Clinton's main ambitions was to reform
America's health-care system. The task was huge.
1. He appointed his wife, Hillary Clinton, to head the committee of health-care
reform. This was obviously a very different role for a First Lady.
2. Meeting after meeting after meeting was held.
To match a complicated problem, the plan that was developed was incredibly confusing
and complicated itself. It was not going to make it through Congress and
didn't.
3. Good news came with budget. Clinton got a
deficit-reduction bill passed in 1993. By 1996, the economy was doing very
well. The annual budget deficit would actually become
a budget surplus and the national debt
would actually go down.
4. Guns came under fire.
1. The "Brady Bill" was passed to place restrictions on
buying a gun. It was named after James Brady who'd been shot during the
Reagan assassination attempt.
2. An $30 billion anti-crime bill was also passed
to ban certain assault weapons.
5. There were terrorist activities.
1. A religious cult called the "Branch
Davidians" gathered weapons and holed themselves up in a Waco, TX
compound. After a standoff with the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), the
feds moved in, set the compound on fire. Everyone inside, including women and
children, either were killed by their leaders, committed suicide, or died from
the fire.
2. A "homegrown" anti-government
terrorist blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 168 people died.
3. Later, in 1998, the anti-gun movement gained
steam when two students killed twelve others in Littleton, CO.
1. Those against restricting guns used two arguments: (1) the Second Amendment
simply states the "right to bear arms" and, (2) that simply banning guns doesn't mean they disappear—criminals
would still get them if they wanted. The slogan was, "If guns were
outlawed, only outlaws would get guns."
4. Foreign terrorists struck too. These were the
work of the radical Islamic terrorist sect Al-Qaeda.
1. In 1993, terrorists drove a truck bomb
underneath the World Trade Center and detonated it. The parking garage was
gutted, but the buildings stood (until 9/11/2001 when Al Qaeda struck again).
2. 1998, Al-Qaeda & Bin Laden sent truck bombs to U.S. embassies, Tanzania
& Kenya. Hundreds died.
3. Al-Qaeda struck in 2000 when a suicide boat
exploded against U.S.S. Cole
killing 17 American sailors.
4. Unfortunately, little action was taken to halt
this trend of terrorism.
3. The Politics of Distrust
1. In the 1994 mid-term elections, the
Republicans pushed back, led by Newt Gingrinch.
1. Gingrinch developed "Contract with
America" deal to reduce deficit & cut welfare-state programs.
2. It was successful. Republicans took over both
houses of Congress. Gingrinch became Speaker of the House.
2. Now, with a Republican Congress, Clinton would
have to play politics for sure. Things see-sawed back-and-forth.
1. The Republicans scored victories.
1. They passed a law restricting
"unfunded mandates" where the federal government mandates the
states to do something, but provides no money to do it.
2. They also passed the Welfare Reform Bill which rolled back welfare handouts and
forced able-bodied people to get off taxpayer money and go to work.
2. The Democrats and Clinton scored victories.
1. The very fact Clinton signed those bills hurt
Republicans. He (1) stole their thunder, and (2) he moved even more "to
the center" and perhaps made himself even more electable. Liberals on the
left were mad, but "the center" has more voters.
2. Gingrich rubbed many Americans wrong as if he
were going too far. Like his suggestion of sending children of families on
welfare to orphanages was bad & when budget was not agreed upon, federal
gov. shut down for several days. Again, it looked bad and the Republican
Congress got the blame.
3. The 1996 presidential election was almost a
moot point. Clinton ran for reelection. Bob Dole ran for the Republicans.
1. Dole was from the WWII generation and his
campaign was uninspiring. To the younger baby boom generation, electing Dole
would seem to be moving backward. More importantly, the economy was doing
great.
2. Clinton was reelected easily, 379 to 159. He was the first Democrat
reelected since FDR.
4. Clinton Again
1. Again, Clinton governed "to the
middle."
1. He embraced the Welfare Reform Bill, which
he'd initially signed with reluctance.
2. He addressed affirmative action with a
"mend it, don't end it" approach.
1. By this time, the courts and America's mood
was beginning to turn away from affirmative action. Clinton spoke out against
this movement, but didn't pursue action (again, a middle ground move).
2. Clinton was largely a popular president—always
the result of a strong economy. There were some money disputes…
1. Clinton supported the hot-topic of NAFTA
(North American Free-Trade Agreement). It cut tariffs and trade barriers to set
up a free trade zone between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico.
2. Clinton supported the beginning of World Trade
Organization to lower tariffs & trade barriers internationally.
3. Campaign finance reform came forth. Many
people disliked political donors giving tons of money to a candidate. The
thinking was, "I'll give you money for the campaign, & when you're in
office, remember me." Both parties talked about campaign finance reform,
but with big money so critical in elections, neither did anything.
5. Problems Abroad
1. With Cold War over, there was a question of
where and how to apply U.S. foreign policy. Clinton dotted around the globe.
2. President Clinton deployed troops to Somalia
to help restore order from chaos. Dozens of U.S. troops died. Clinton pulled
the troops out without having set or accomplished a clear goal.
1. Notably, the U.S. did not intervene in Rwanda. There, some 500,000
people were killed in ethnic fighting.
3. In Haiti president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
ousted in a military coup in 1994. Clinton sent 20,000 U.S. troops to put
Aristide back into power. (He was booted again in 2004).
4. As a campaigner, Clinton talked tough on
China's poor human rights record. As president, he realized the importance of
China as a trade partner. He softened his talk and with Congress, made China a
full trade partner of the U.S.
5. Yugoslavia's ethnic groups began fighting.
Clinton and NATO sent a peace-keeping force in attempt to restore order.
1. Things there were ugly; Serbian president
Slobodan Milosevic started "ethnic cleansing" - a miniature
Holocaust.
2. Clinton ordered an air raid in response.
People scattered, but Milosevic did accept a cease-fire. (He was later arrested
and tried at the International Criminal Court).
6. Clinton also negotiated another Middle East
peace treaty. This time, the leaders were Israel's Yitzhak Rabin and the controversial Palestinian Liberation
Org. (PLO) head Yasir Arafat.
1. This treaty would prove brief—two years later
Rabin would be assassinated.
7. Nearing the end of his second term, Clinton
seemed eager to leave a lasting legacy to his presidency.
1. He & his Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, worked unsuccessfully to broker another Mid
East peace agreement.
2. Clinton also tried to work peace in Ireland,
the Koreas, India, and Pakistan. He wasn't successful.
6. Scandal and Impeachment
1. Rumors and scandal seemed to follow Clinton,
earning him the nickname "Slick Willy."
1. Womanizing rumors had followed Clinton since
the campaign days.
2. He and Hillary were accused of shady business
in their home state of Arkansas with investments in the Whitewater Land Corp. A
special federal prosecutor investigated the Whitewater deal, but nothing came
out of it.
3. Eyebrows rose and conspiracy theories went
wild when Vincent Foster, Jr. committed suicide. He was in charge of managing
Clinton's legal and financial affairs. It seems apparent that his suicide was
due to personal reasons.
2. All scandals became secondary to the Monica
Lewinsky sex scandal in the White House.
1. Lewinsky was an intern. She and Clinton had a
sexual affair.
2. Then, while under oath for a different woman's
sexual harassment lawsuit, Clinton lied about the Lewinski affair.
1. Clinton was asked if he'd had "sexual
relations", and whatever went on between he and "that woman" did
not meet his definition of sex. Clinton felt he didn't lie.
2. The DNA in the stain on Lewinsky's infamous
blue dress said otherwise.
3. For "obstruction of justice" and
perjury, the House voted to impeach Clinton—the second president to be
impeached after Andrew Johnson in the 1960s.
4. However, the Senate did not get the 2/3 vote necessary to kick Clinton
from office.
7. Clinton’s Legacy
1. Clinton wanted a lasting legacy to his
presidency, one that did not involve the words "scandal" or
"impeach."
1. Clinton preserved lands, set up a
"patients' bill of rights", and hired more teachers and police
officers.
2. Clinton did make some good marks.
1. He truly did "govern to the
middle"—this angered the far Left and Right, but appealed to most Americans.
2. The economy was strong and the budget was
at surplus levels. Unemployment was a bare minimum, poverty rates went
down, and median income reached new highs.
1. History may in fact make the budget surplus
Clinton's non-scandal legacy.
3. Clinton left on something on a sour note.
1. With a few days left, he negotiated a deal on
the Lewinsky scandal. To got immunity from any future legal action in the case
in return for paying a fine and suspension of his law license for 5 years.
2. Also, at the last moment, he gave pardons to
political donors and backers which got them out of jail.
3. The Bush-Gore Presidential Battle
1. The 2000 presidential election was predicted
to be a close one.
2. VP Al Gore was nominated by Democrats. Gore had Clinton paradox-the good
was that he could lay claim to the prosperity of the Clinton years, the bad was
that aligning too close with Clinton also aligned with his scandals.
3. The Republicans chose Texas governor George W. Bush, (nicknamed "W" or Texas-style,
"Dubya"). Bush spoke of being a "compassionate
conservative." He chose Dick Cheney
as his running-mate. Cheney had been a major player in Bush's father's
presidency during the Persian Gulf War.
1. A "Green Party" nominated Ralph Nader & consisted mostly of environmentalists
& extreme liberals.
4. With government collecting a budget surplus,
the question became, "What should be done with extra money?"
1. Bush believed money belonged to taxpayers
& wanted large tax cut to return money "to the people."
2. Gore wanted small tax cuts, use the rest to pay
down debt, invest Social Security, & expand Medicare.
3. This was age-old class warfare. Bush's plan
would've helped people who paid taxes-generally higher wage earners. However,
some 45% of Americans do not pay income tax. That group votes dominantly
Democratic. Therefore, Gore's plan focused more on spending the tax money on
social services.
5. Nader was little more than a side-show.
8. The Controversial Election of 2000
1. Though predicted close, no one predicted it to
be as close as it was.
1. Only the Hayes-Tilden standoff of 1876 was
comparable.
2. The election boiled down a few states. Florida
was the critical swing state because it had the nation's fourth most
electoral votes. Florida was essentially a tie, but very slightly favored
Bush. There were even more twists to the election…
1. Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, and the president's
brother—perfect fuel for conspiracy theories.
2. A recount was made. Bush was still ahead, by a
margin of around 500 votes out of 6 million.
3. The questions narrowed to Broward and Palm
Beach counties. There was a large Jewish population there so it was figured it
would go heavily Democratic (Gore's running-mate was Joseph Lieberman, himself Jewish).
1. In Palm Beach County, the infamous
"butterfly ballot" had supposedly tricked seniors who wanted to vote
for Gore into voting for Bush. Another excruciating recount was undertaken
there.
3. The process dragged on for about a month and
America still didn't know who the next president would be.
1. The recounted votes were finally made official
and Bush won the election 271 to 266 in the electoral.
4. There were ironies in the election…
1. The American electoral system showed its
quirkiness. Gore actually got more popular votes (50,999,897 to Bush’s
50,456,002), but he lost the critical electoral vote (266 to Bush’s
271).
2. Similar to how a third party candidate (Ross
Perot) helped the Democrats by hurting the first Bush an election in 1992, a third
party candidate came back to bite the Democrats in 2000. Nader's Green
Party got only 2.7% of the vote, however without him in the race, they would've
almost certainly voted Democratic and Gore would've won.
5. Election maps from the 2000 election showed
how Americans broke down in terms of voters.
1. Democrats drew from cities, west & east
coasts, heavy Latino areas, & African-Americans (viewing a blue-red
Democrat-Republican map, old "Cotton Belt" from Mississippi River to
Virginia is clearly seen as a blue arc).
2. Republicans drew from rural areas, mostly the
South and the West.
9. Bush Begins
1. Like his father, Bush was an odd mix of good
ol' boy from Texas and Ivy League. Bush took office talking up his Texas
upbringing (true) and talking down his family’s privileged life "Back
East" (also true).
2. Bush stepped to culture wars, almost always
siding conservative. Conservatives & Christians cheered, liberals were
irate.
1. Bush removed support from international groups
that were pro-abortion.
2. He supported federally funded faith-based
welfare programs.
3. He opposed stem-cell research, which had great
medical possibilities, on the grounds that the embryo in reality was a small
person and doing tests on it was nothing other than abortion.
4. He frustrated environmentalists and the
legitimacy of global warming; shunning Kyoto agreement that limited greenhouse
emissions, speaking of new oil exploration in Alaska. Businesses were happy by
these positions.
5. Bush went ahead with his promised tax cut
amounting to $1.3 trillion. By 2004, the cut combined with the economy yielding
a $400 billion deficit.
10. Terrorism Comes to America
1. On September 11, 2001, America’s centuries-old enjoyment of being on “our side
of the pond” ended when militant Islamic radicals attacked America. Radicals
hijacked passenger planes & used the planes, & hostages, as guided
missiles.
1. 2 planes slammed into World Trade Center
towers in New York City. The towers caught fire, then came down.
2. A third plane slammed into the Pentagon.
3. A fourth plane was thought to be aiming for
the White House or Capitol building, but heroic passengers took back the plane
before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
2. President Bush's legacy was essentially made
for him-responding to 9/11 attacks.
Bush proved strong in the aftermath.
1. The whole plan was the work of Al-Qaeda,
headed by Osama bin Laden.
2. Bush called for Bin Laden’s head. Afghanistan
refused to hand him over so Bush ordered military to go on the offensive &
hunt him down. The hunt proved difficult in rugged Afghanistan and Bin Laden
proved elusive.
3. With the jitters high, the American economy
took a turn for the worse, and a few Americans died after receiving
anthrax-laden letters. Coupled with fear of another attack, anxiety loomed.
3. Terrorism launched a “new kind of war”/a “war
on terror” requiring tactics beyond conventional battlefields.
1. The Patriot Act gave the government extended surveillance rights.
Critics charged this was a Big Brother-like infringement of rights, a reversal
of the freedoms that Americans were fighting for.
2. Department of Homeland
Security established the
newest cabinet department with goals of securing America.
11. Bush Takes the Offensive Against Iraq
1. Saddam Hussein had been a long time menace to
long list of people. With Bush, Saddam's time had run out. Bush stated he’d not
tolerate Hussein’s defiance of the U.N.’s weapons inspectors.
1. Also, Bush lumped Iraq and Saddam into an
"axis of evil" that he believed helped and harbored terrorists. To
Bush, attacking Saddam was just one part of the "war on terror."
2. The center of the problem was information and
lack of action.
1. Intelligence at the time suggested Hussein had
& was actively making weapons of mass destruction (“WMDs”).
2. When U.N. tried to disprove the WMD threat,
Hussein continually thumbed his nose at the weapons inspectors.
3. WMD intelligence in hand, Bush decided it was
time for action.
1. Bush sought the U.N.'s approval for taking
military action, but some nations, notably France, Russia, and Germany with
their Security Council veto, had cold feet.
2. Bush decided to go it alone. Heavy
majorities of Congress in October of 2002 approved armed force against Iraq.
3. The U.N. tried one last time to inspect,
Hussein blocked the inspectors again. The U.N. and inspectors asked for more
time still. The U.N. appeared to lack any muscle—they'd made a rule, but could
not enforce it.
4. For Bush, time was up and it was time for
action. In March of 2003, the U.S. launched an attack and Baghdad fell
within a month. Saddam went on the run, and then was found nine months
later, literally hiding in a hole in the ground.
1. He would later be turned over to Iraq. The Iraqi
court tried Saddam, convicted him of murder, and hanged him.
5. Taking Iraq, though not easy, was swift and
successful, but securing and rebuilding Iraq would prove tougher.
12. Owning Iraq
1. Most Iraqi people welcomed the Americans, but
certainly not all.
1. Factions broke out. Iraqi insurgents attacked
American G.I.’s and casualties mounted to nearly 1,200 by 2004.
2. Although removing Saddam was successful, it
was feared that if U.S. came home leaving political void, whatever emerged to
fill the void may be worse. Americans soon began to wonder, “How long will we
be there?”
2. The new goals were to (1) establish security
in Iraq, eventually by Iraqi troops, and (2) create and turn over control to a
new democratically elected Iraqi government.
1. Training Iraqi security troops proved
pitifully slow.
2. A new government was created and limited power
handed over on June 28, 2004.
3. Meanwhile, American casualties and deaths
added up due to localized fighting and roadside bombs.
3. Iraq became a divisive issue in America.
Conservatives generally supported the war and post-war efforts. Liberals
charged that Bush was on some ego-tripping battle charge to hunt down phantom
weapons of mass destruction.
4. A Country in Conflict
1. Other issues divided America:
1. Democrats continually grumbled about the
“stolen” 2000 election.
2. Civil libertarians fumed over the Patriot Act.
3. Pacifists said the WMD reasoning was made up
from the get-go to start a war in Iraq they felt unjust.
4. Big businesses, like Enron & WorldCom,
fooled around with accounting and supposedly fattened the rich and gleaned the
poor. They went bankrupt and wiped out many people's retirement funds.
5. Social warfare continued over abortion and
homosexuality.
6. Affirmative action still boiled, and Supreme
Court came up mathematical formulae for minority admittance to undergrads. It also
stated that in 25 years racial preferences would likely be unnecessary.
13. Reelecting George W. Bush
1. Republicans put Bush up for reelection in 2004.
2. The Democrats selected Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
3. Despite the usual litany of issues (education,
health care, etc.) the key issue of the 2004 election was national security.
1. At the heart of the security issue, was the
question of the war in Iraq.
2. Bush said the U.S. was making progress and should thus “stay the course” in Iraq.
3. Kerry took an anti-war position. However, Kerry’s position on war and his
image was somewhat confounding:
1. Kerry was a Vietnam War hero, but became a
Vietnam War protester. This trend continued in 2004…
2. Kerry voted for military action in Iraq, but
then voted against a bill for military spending for the war and said he was
against the war.
3. Kerry gained support by criticizing Bush’s
management (or mismanagement) of the Iraq situation.
1. Kerry charged that Bush had no plan for Iraq
after the initial take-over.
2. Kerry focused only on Bush’s failure, not
effectively presenting voters with his own action.
4. Most pollsters predicted Kerry to win. But, Bush
won with a strong showing of 286 electoral votes to Kerry’s 252.
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