2000 Presidential Election“The American people have spoken, but it's going to take a little while to determine what they said”- Bill Clinton

Background

•8 years of Democratic president Clinton

•Relatively peaceful period•Economy strong and

growing•Lewinski scandal

undermining Clinton administration

•Its the year 2000

George W. Bush•Governor of Texas•Running mate Dick Cheney•Had ability to pull support

from groups such as women/hispanics etc who might not normally vote rep.

•Likeable personality and “compassionate conservative” message.

Al Gore

•VP in Clinton admin. >Legacy

•His running mate was Joe Lieberman (brave choice as he was Jewish)

•Struggled to create unique identity for himself, perceived as wooden, not the ‘loveable rogue’ Clinton was.

Campaign•Bush managed to see off McCain for the

nomination•Gore had no real challenger, and secured

the nomination with little effort•Third party challenger Ralph Nader for

the Greens managed to gain some considerable support and appeared a more radical/energetic alternative to Gore. (finished with 2.74% of popular vote, almost 3m votes>losing margin for Gore-only 500,000)

Issues

•Clinton affair-Bush sold himself as the opposite kind of man; someone to bring honour back to the White House

•Education-no child left behind policy•Tax cuts/ Social Security etc•Could Bush be trusted? What did Gore

actually offer?

Debates

•It is generally believed that Bush won the debates, perhaps due to exceeding already low expectations

•Gore had better knowledge, Bush better presentation.

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMdjUsDf0U4&feature=related

Florida•Bush-246/ Gore-255...270 needed to win.•Unprecedented by all, the electoral college

votes for each candidate were coming to a tie; as votes came out, it was clear Florida would be the place where the winner was decided. (With 25 EC votes on offer)

•Confusion as one news company announced Gore as winner, then switched to Bush, then said it was ‘too close to call’.

Florida cont.• It was so close (margin of victory 0.0092%) that

a recount was demanded by Gore• The recounting process meant an election

winner was not decided till a month after balloting closed.

• Ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a nationwide recount of ballots as unconstitutional.

• As a result Bush became president with 271 EC votes, whilst Gore still had a higher % of the popular vote.

• There has been post recount dispute as to whether Gore would have in fact won, but because of the Supreme Court’s ruling it was irrelevant.

And suddenly

•The controversy led to widespread calls for electoral reform, but none has really come.

•Bush went from likeable Texas Governor in 2000 to one of Americas most hated Presidents when he left in 2008.

•Gore made some videos about climate change

•No war on terror?