US Presidents For Dummies

by Marcus Stadelmann

  The Democrats lost both Houses of Congress for the first time since the Eisenhower era. Clinton faced a hostile Congress and its new Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. Gridlock resulted: The Democratic President and Republican Congress battled each other to a standstill on most issues.

  In late 1995 and early 1996, the federal government was shut down twice because Congress and the president could not agree on a budget. The Republicans wanted to cut spending for Medicare and educational and environmental programs, while the president planned to increase spending in these areas. Republicans paid a bitter price for this conflict in the 1996 elections, receiving the blame for shutting down the government.

  During the summer of 1996, Clinton and Congress did reach agreement on increasing the minimum wage and reforming the welfare system.

  Winning reelection in 1996

  In 1996, President Clinton ran against Republican senator Robert Dole of Kansas. Dole desperately tried to make Clinton’s character a campaign issue, but he was unsuccessful. With the economy doing well, the voters were happy with Clinton’s performance. He won reelection easily with 49 percent of the popular vote and 379 electoral votes. Dole, on the other hand, received 41 percent of the popular vote and 159 electoral votes. Third-party candidate H. Ross Perot ran a distant third, winning only 8 percent of the vote.

  Dealing with foreign policy

  During the Clinton presidency, many foreign policy crises took place. With Clinton specializing in domestic policies, it was clear that foreign policy wasn’t as important to him. The major events included:

  NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement): Clinton’s predecessor, George Bush, laid the foundation for NAFTA before he left office (see “Having problems at home” earlier in this chapter for the details). Many in the United States, especially labor unions, feared that NAFTA would take jobs away from U.S. workers because people could buy cheaper foreign goods and companies could move to Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor. Clinton went against many in his own party and pushed for passage of the agreement in 1993.

  Somalia: Clinton inherited the mess in Somalia from his predecessor, George Bush. Bush sent troops to Somalia to protect United Nations food deliveries. President Clinton increased U.S. troops and attempted to restore order in the country, which was torn by civil war. In 1993, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed and by 1994, the troops were recalled.

  Haiti: In 1991, a military coup ousted democratically elected president Aristide. By 1993, thousands of Haitians tried to flee to the United States, and Clinton acted. He demanded that President Aristide be returned to power. The Haitian military refused and Clinton sent troops.

  Before military personnel reached Haiti, a peace delegation headed by former president Jimmy Carter reached an agreement to restore Aristide to power.

  The bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa: In 1998, al Qaeda (see Chapter 25) bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing hundreds. Clinton ordered missile attacks against Sudan and Afghanistan, the two countries harboring al Qaeda.

  The Dayton Peace Accords: These accords, reached in 1995, settled the conflict in Bosnia by dividing the country into three parts, with each faction in the conflict — Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians — controlling one part.

  The attack on Yugoslavia: By 1998, Serbian troops were committing genocide, or mass murder, in the province of Kosovo, inhabited by ethnic Albanians. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and President Clinton initiated strikes against Serbia in the spring of 1999. By the summer of 1999, Yugoslavia had agreed to the presence of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Kosovo.

  In 2000, a democratic rebellion toppled the communist leader of Yugoslavia, settling the crisis for good.

  All the president’s scandals

  Scandals surfaced throughout the Clinton presidency. The most famous of these include

  The Whitewater affair: In 1993, a financial dealing the Clintons had in Arkansas became an issue for the Clinton presidency. The Clintons were involved in a land-development deal in Arkansas in 1978, called the Whitewater Development Corporation. When the deal went sour, the Clintons lost a chunk of money, as did their business partners. Later, these partners, James and Susan McDougal, opened a small savings and loan. The savings and loan went under in 1989; it was later bailed out by the federal government. President Clinton was accused of using his position as governor of Arkansas to help out his former business partners. A federal investigation, headed by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, filed no charges against the Clintons. But the Clintons’s former business partners, the McDougals, and the governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker, were convicted of wrongdoing.

  The Paula Jones case: In 1994, Paula Jones, a former secretary for the state of Arkansas, accused President Clinton of sexual harassment. The case was at first dismissed, but Jones appealed it. Rather than go to court, Clinton paid her $850,000 to drop the case.

  The Lewinsky affair: During the Paula Jones case, lawyers became aware of a rumor that president Clinton was having an affair with one of his interns, 24-year-old Monica Lewinsky. In early 1998, President Clinton denied the affair under oath. Evidence later contradicted his testimony.

  Ms. Lewinsky admitted to the affair and stated that Clinton told her to lie in front of a grand jury — a criminal offense.

  In August 1998, the President appeared in front of a grand jury and admitted the affair — contradicting his earlier testimony. A few days later, the president apologized for the affair and admitted to the U.S. public that he had lied.

  In December 1998, the House voted to impeach President Clinton on two charges — obstruction of justice and perjury (lying under oath). The Senate, however, failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to convict and remove Clinton. Clinton’s presidency was saved, and he served out his term. (For an explanation of the impeachment process, turn to the “How to get impeached” sidebar in Chapter 11.)

  Bill Clinton was the first elected U.S. president to be impeached in the House of Representatives. The only other president to be impeached by the House was Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln after Lincoln’s assassination.

  Leaving under a cloud

  Throughout the impeachment hearings, much of the public stood behind Clinton. While they disapproved of his behavior and his character, they approved of his politics.

  Clinton served out the last two years in office enjoying an ever-expanding economy. By 1999, the budget surplus grew to $123 billion, and it looked as if the federal deficit could be paid off by 2002 — a feat that hadn’t been accomplished since Andrew Jackson’s time in office.

  Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore didn’t ask Clinton to campaign for him in 2000 because he didn’t want to be tied to Clinton’s scandals. Clinton and others later blamed this decision for Gore’s eventual loss.

  Clinton campaigned heavily for his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who won a Senate seat in the state of New York, where Clinton was very popular. Hillary Rodham Clinton is the first “first lady” to win a seat in the U.S. Senate.

  Clinton retired to New York after the 2000 elections to write his memoirs and oversee the construction of his presidential library in Arkansas.

  His scandals followed him into retirement. Right before leaving office, President Clinton granted pardons for criminal convictions to 140 people, some of them major donors to the Democratic Party. “Pardongate” further tarnished Clinton’s reputation.

  Chapter 25

  Getting the Call: George W. Bush

  In This Chapter

  Governing Texas

  Winning a disputed election

  Leading the country through the unimagined

  G eorge W. Bush, shown in Figure 25-1, certainly has the background for the presidency: His grandfather served in the U.S. Senate, and his father was president. However, it wasn’t until his father was defeated in his bid for reelection as president in 1992 that George W. became involved in politics. He ran for gover
nor of Texas, defeating a popular incumbent, and after being reelected by a record margin, he decided to go for the White House.

  The 1992 election, which saw his father lose the presidency, hurt George W. Bush deeply. He felt that the Democrats had smeared his father’s reputation, and he vowed revenge. Many see his father’s loss to Bill Clinton as the catalyst for Bush’s ambitions in politics.

  George W. Bush prevailed in the most disputed election in U.S. history, and he seemed destined to preside over a contentious and partisan presidency. Then terrorism struck the United States, and President Bush was called upon to answer the attack. He has done an outstanding job to this point. He has the chance to become one of the great presidents in U.S. history.

  Figure 25-1: George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States.

  ©AFP/CORBIS

  Growing up prominent

  George Walker Bush was born in 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut. He came from one of the most prominent families in the United States. When George W. was 2 years old, the family moved to Texas, where his father made millions in the oil business.

  Bush attended and graduated from Yale University with a degree in history in 1968. He served in the Texas Air National Guard from 1968 until 1973, but he didn’t see any action in the ongoing Vietnam War. Bush was famous for his partying and drinking in these years, though he stopped drinking alcohol in 1986.

  In 1973 went to Harvard University to get a Master of Business Administration (MBA). After completing the degree, Bush moved back to Texas and worked in the oil industry.

  While campaigning for a seat in the House of Representatives in 1977, Bush met his future wife, Laura Welch, a schoolteacher and librarian. They married in November 1977.

  Bush’s Early Career

  In 1977, Bush ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost. After his defeat, Bush went back to the oil industry, which he’d worked in after getting his MBA in 1975. He started his own company, Arbusto Energy Inc. (Arbusto means “bush” in Spanish.) The company didn’t do well, though when it merged with a larger company, George W. stayed on as CEO. Bush was paid handsomely when he sold the company in 1986.

  In 1987, Bush went to Washington to help his father run for the presidency. He had worked on his father’s 1980 presidential campaign and became an advisor when his father entered the White House. In 1989, he returned to Texas to buy a stake in the Texas Rangers, a professional baseball team. He became the spokesman for the team, which made him well-known in Texas.

  The oil business did not make Bush a millionaire; rather, it was the sale of his share of the Texas Rangers that made him his fortune. He was in debt until he sold his oil company and used the money to buy into the Texas Rangers.

  Running for governor

  After exploring the possibility, Bush ran for governor of Texas in 1994. Going into the race, Bush knew it would be tough to overcome his underdog status. The incumbent governor, Ann Richards, enjoyed good ratings and was well liked. But, instead of launching bitter personal attacks as his opponent did, Bush talked about issues, emphasizing education reform and reducing crime. He even campaigned in traditional Democratic strongholds, where his fluency in Spanish helped him with Mexican-Americans.

  Bush’s victory in Texas was the great surprise of the 1994 elections. Bush won in some traditional Democratic areas such as East Texas. Victory was sweet for Bush. He defeated the politician who had savagely attacked his father in her keynote address to the 1988 Democratic national convention.

  Governing Texas

  As governor of Texas, Bush showed his ability to negotiate, compromise, and make friends. He courted the most important Democrats in the state — the Democrats still controlled the legislature and the powerful lieutenant governor’s position — and quickly established close friendships with the Democratic speaker of the house and the lieutenant governor.

  Bush accomplished much in his first term as the governor of Texas. He reduced the number of Texans on welfare, reformed the education system, and put a ceiling on lawsuit judgments. By the time he was up for reelection in 1998, Bush was a shoo-in. Many prominent Democrats endorsed him, including the Democratic lieutenant governor, and he beat his Democratic opponent with 69 percent of the vote. He received 49 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas, a record for a Republican.

  Bush accomplished even more in his second term as governor. He raised salaries for teachers and pledged to have every child reading by the time he or she graduated from school. Statistics showed that his education reforms were working, as educational test scores increased throughout the state.

  Running for the Presidency

  In early 1999, Bush formed an exploratory committee to evaluate his chances of making a successful bid for the presidency. Bush knew that he would face tough competition for the nomination, especially from Senator John McCain from Arizona and former Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole., but he emerged as the Republican nominee.

  Bush returned to his Texas themes — education and welfare reform — believing that they would work well nationwide. He labeled himself a compassionate conservative to attract women and minority voters, on whom the election hinged. Bush emphasized education and social security reform and pledged to strengthen the military and cut taxes. The strategy worked.

  Debating and Campaigning

  Three debates between the major-party presidential candidates — Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore — were a decisive component of the election. On paper, the debates favored Gore, a seasoned debater, but during the first debate Bush appeared knowledgeable and experienced, while Gore appeared bored and arrogant. The media declared Bush the winner, and he regained a small lead in the polls. Both candidates performed well in the next two debates, and the polls didn’t change. Bush clung to a small lead.

  Five days before the election took place, it was revealed that Governor Bush had been arrested for drunken driving more than 20 years prior. Not many people were affected by the story, but a small minority moved to Al Gore, giving him a small lead in the polls. The night before the election, two polls favored Bush and two favored Gore. It would be a close race indeed.

  Surviving the 2000 Election

  On Election Day, both candidates won the states they were expected to. The election seemed to be over when the networks called the state of Florida for Al Gore. Bush couldn’t win without its electoral votes. But, two hours later the networks put Florida back in the undecided column.

  This error proved costly for Bush. Subsequent studies show that the networks’ error depressed Republican voter turnout in key states that Bush ended up losing by just a few thousand votes.

  At 1 o’clock in the morning Eastern Standard Time, the networks declared Bush the winner in Florida. Gore was on the phone with Bush, congratulating him, when he was informed that Bush’s lead in Florida was dwindling. Gore retracted his concession, and Florida moved back to the undecided column. When the country woke up the next morning, there was no winner. Al Gore won the popular vote, but neither candidate had a majority in the Electoral College. Florida would decide the election.

  Going to court

  On November 9, 2000, two days after the election, Bush’s lead in Florida was 1,784 votes out of 6 million votes cast. The closeness of the race triggered an automatic recount under Florida law. The recount was completed by November 10, and Bush’s lead had declined to 327 votes.

  The Democratic Party asked for a manual recount in four traditionally Democratic counties in Florida. The Bush campaign objected and went to court to block the recount, claiming that it would be partisan, and therefore unreliable. The Gore campaign argued that the ballot in Palm Beach County was confusing and that questionable ballots should be inspected and counted. The federal courts refused to stop the recounts, and Florida gave the four counties until November 14, 2000 to complete their recounts.

  The Gore campaign objected, claiming that a thorough recount would take longer than the court-imposed deadline of Novem
ber 14. A district court upheld the deadline, but ruled that all recounts could be included in the final tally. Now the Bush campaign objected. The Florida Supreme Court finally ruled on November 21, 2000 that all manual recounts had to be included in the final vote totals and set a new deadline for the recounts to be completed: November 26, 2000. On that date, the Republican secretary of state for Florida, Katherine Harris, certified George W. Bush as the winner of Florida’s electoral votes. The final margin was 537 votes.

  Because the final vote didn’t include Miami-Dade County, which stopped the recounts because it couldn’t complete them on time, the Gore campaign contested the final results. Gore appealed to the Florida Supreme Court which called for a new statewide manual recount.

  Being appointed

  The Bush campaign took the case to the United States Supreme Court which stopped all recounts on December 9, 2000. Three days later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a split 5 to 4 decision that no further recounts could be held in Florida. It was all over for the Gore campaign. One day later, Vice President Gore conceded and congratulated George W. Bush in a nationally televised address. Bush was now the new president of the United States.