Bill Clinton: the First Baby-Boomer President
The Democrats moved away from their extreme-liberal positions
They advocated economic growth, a strong defense, and anti-crime measures.
The Republicans championed ending the Cold War,
Bill Clinton won the election, 374 to 168, because of two reasons
The poor economy was the issue—bad news for Bush, good for Clinton. Clinton had a slogan to remind his staff, "It's the economy, stupid.
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.
Both houses of Congress also went to the Democrats.
Minorities also did well in 1992. Carol Moseley-Braun was the first woman ever elected to the Senate.
Clinton would also appoint Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court a second female justice.
A False Start for Reform
One of Clinton's main ambitions was to reform America's health-care system.
He appointed his wife, Hillary Clinton, to head the committee of health-care reform.
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
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.
Guns came under fire.
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.
$30 billion anti-crime bill was also passed to ban certain assault weapons.
There were terrorist activities.
A "homegrown" anti-government terrorist blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 168 people died.
Those against restricting guns used two arguments: the Second Amendment simply states the "right to bear arms" and, 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.
Foreign terrorists struck too. These were the work of the radical Islamic terrorist sect Al-Qaeda.
In 1998, Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden sent truck bombs to the U.S. embassies in in Tanzania and Kenya. Hundreds were killed.
Al-Qaeda struck again in 2000 when a suicide boat exploded against the U.S.S. Cole killed 17 American sailors.
Unfortunately, little action was taken to halt this trend of terrorism.
The Politics of Distrust
In the 1994 mid-term elections, the Republicans pushed back, led by Newt Gingrinch.
The programs was very successful. The Republicans took over both houses of Congress. Gingrinch became the Speaker of the House.
The Republicans scored victories.
They passed a law restricting "unfunded mandates" where the federal government mandates the states to do something, but provides no money to do it.
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.
The Democrats and Clinton scored victories.
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.
Clinton was reelected easily, 379 to 159. He was the first Democrat reelected since FDR.
Again, Clinton governed
He embraced the Welfare Reform Bill, which he'd initially signed with reluctance.
He addressed affirmative action with a "mend it, don't end it" approach.
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
Clinton was largely a popular president always the result of a strong economy. There were some money disputes…
Problems Abroad
With the Cold War over, there was a question of where and how to apply U.S. foreign policy. Clinton dotted around the globe.
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.
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.
Things there were ugly, with Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic started "ethnic cleansing." It was a miniature Holocaust.
This treaty would prove brief—two years later Rabin would be assassinated.
Nearing the end of his second term, Clinton seemed eager to leave a lasting legacy to his presidency.
He and his Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, worked unsuccessfully to broker another Middle East peace agreement.
Clinton also tried to work peace in Ireland, the Koreas, India, and Pakistan. He wasn't successful.
Scandal and Impeachment
Rumors and scandal seemed to follow Clinton, earning him the nickname
All scandals became secondary to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal in the White House.
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.
For "obstruction of justice" and perjury, the House voted to impeach Clinton—the second president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson in the 1960s.
However, the Senate did not get the 2/3 vote necessary to kick Clinton from office.
Clinton’s Legacy
Clinton wanted a lasting legacy to his presidency, one that did not involve the words "scandal" or "impeach."
Clinton preserved lands, set up a "patients' bill of rights", and hired more teachers and police officers.
Clinton did make some good marks.
He truly did "govern to the middle" this angered the far Left and Right, but appealed to most Americans.
The economy was strong and the budget was at surplus levels. Unemployment was a bare minimum, poverty rates went down, median income reached new highs.
History may in fact make the budget surplus Clinton's non-scandal legacy.
Clinton left on something on a sour note.
With a few days left, he negotiated a deal on the Lewinsky scandal. He was given immunity from any future legal action in the case in return for paying a fine and suspension of his law license for 5 years.
Also, at the last moment, he gave pardons to political donors and backers which got them out of jail.
The Bush-Gore Presidential Battle
The 2000 presidential election was predicted to be a close one.
Bush believed the money belonged to the taxpayers. Thus, he wanted to make a large tax cut to return the money "to the people."
Gore wanted to make a smaller tax cut then use the rest to pay down the debt, invest in Social Security, and perhaps expand Medicare.
Nader, was little more than a side-show.
The Controversial Election of 2000
Jeb Bush was governor of Florida, and the president's brother—perfect fuel for conspiracy theories.
A recount was made. Bush was still ahead, by a margin of around 500 votes out of 6 million.
In Palm Beach county, the infamous "butterfly ballot" supposedly tricked seniors wishing to vote for Gore into voting for another candidate. Another excruciating recount was undertaken there.
The process dragged on for about a month and America still didn't know who the next president would be.
The recounted votes were finally made official and Bush won the election 271 to 266 in the electoral vote.
There were ironies in the election…
In the 2000 election, Ralph Nader's Green Party got only 2.7% of the popular vote, however if he had not been in the election, his ultra-liberal supporters would've almost certainly voted Democratic and Gore would've won.
Election maps from the 2000 election showed how Americans broke down in terms of voters.
Republicans drew from rural areas, mostly the South and the West.
Bush Begins
Bush removed support from international groups that were pro-abortion.
He supported federally funded faith-based welfare programs.
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.
He frustrated environmentalists by questioning the legitimacy of global warming, shunning the Kyoto agreement that was to limit greenhouse emissions, and speaking of new oil exploration in Alaska. Businesses were happy by these positions.
Terrorism Comes to America
Two planes slammed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City. The towers caught fire, then came down.
A third plane slammed into the Pentagon.
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.
President Bush's legacy would essentially be made for him—how he responded to the 9/11 attacks. Bush proved a strong leader in the period after the attacks.
The whole plan was the work of Al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden.
In true Texas-style, Bush called for Bin Laden’s head. Afghanistan refused to hand him over so Bush ordered the military to go on the offensive and hunt him down. The hunt proved to be difficult in rugged Afghanistan and Bin Laden proved elusive.
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.
Terrorism launched a “new kind of war” or a “war on terror” that required tactics beyond the conventional battlefield. Congress responded in turn.
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.
The Department of Homeland Security was established as the newest cabinet department with the goal of securing America.
Bush Takes the Offensive Against Iraq
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.
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."
The center of the problem was information and lack of action.
When the U.N. tried to validate or disprove the WMD threat, Hussein continually thumbed his nose at the weapon’s inspectors.
WMD intelligence in hand, Bush decided it was time for action.
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.
So, Bush decided to go it alone. Heavy majorities of Congress in October of 2002 approved armed force against Iraq.
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, then was found nine months later, literally hiding in a hole in the ground.
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