Lecture 15: Chapters 31-32: George Bush, Bill Clinton
Note: These lecture notes are in free form, not in manuscript.
1988 election: George W. Bush and Dan Quayle, GOP, vs. Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen, Democratic Party
Dukakis: Massachusetts miracle. Bush response: Dukakis in a tank.
Major Dukakis issue: Soft on crime. cf. Willie Horton. Dukakis asked about capital punishment if his wife were raped: technical response.
Bentsen to Quayle: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.”
Dukakis led in the polls after the Democratic convention. Bush responded with an excellent acceptance speech “Read my lips: No new taxes!” as well as a speech on a “Thousand Points of Light.” Bush came back to beat Dukakis definitively by over 6 million popular votes.
Bush presidency. Bush promised a “kinder, gentler nation.”
Foreign policy dominated the Bush presidency:
He had served as ambassador to China (actual title, Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office) and Director of the CIA
Fall of the USSR: Bush stood with Gorbachev and declared the end of the Cold War in December 1989. Gorbachev survived a coup in August 1991, but he resigned as president of the USSR on Christmas Day of that year. The USSR ceased to exist at that time. Bush declared a “New World Order.”
June 1989: Tienanmin Square
December 1989: Manuel Noriega, Panama: U.S. troops invaded and arrested Noriega on drug trafficking charges. Noriega was convicted in 1992.
2 August 1990: Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait.
Bush built and maintained an international coalition to drive Hussein out of Kuwait.
Desert Shield: American troops in the Saudi desert to defend Saudi Arabia from Iraq.
17 January 1991: Desert Storm. 100,000 Iraqi casualties to 148 American casualties, many from friendly fire. Ground phase of the war, led by General Norman Schwarzkopf, involved 500,000 troops but lasted only 100 hours. The U.S. failed to remove Hussein from power but did liberate Kuwait. Bush’ popularity rating hit 90% following the war.
Domestic Issues:
Joined with the Democrats to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Clean Air Act of 1990.
Vetoed a minimum wage hike, along with 27 other vetoes. Congress — Democrats in both houses — never overrode a Bush veto.
1989: S&L crisis expanded, requiring $500 billion to bail out depositors.
1990: Negotiated the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 with the Democrats; created a 31% tax rate, raised the income cap on Medicare, $53,400 to $125,000. Itemized deductions were temporarily limited through 1995. The gasoline tax was temporarily extended and increased through September 30, 1995. Air transportation excise taxes were extended and increased through 1995. The telephone excise tax was permanently extended. (Source: wikipedia.org, “Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990”, last accessed 25 April 2005) Seen as breaking the “no new taxes pledge”
Appointments to Supreme Court:
David Souter of New Hampshire.
Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall. Anita Hill, law professor from the University of Oklahoma, accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Thomas won approval in the Senate, 52-48, but he was immensely unpopular with liberals and their black allies.
Massive layoffs affected the economy. IBM laid off 100,000, joined by Procter & Gamble and Chrysler, among others.
Companies began outsourcing jobs overseas
Negotiated NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, but the treaty was immensely unpopular with the public.
1992 Elections
Bush was highly popular with Republicans, but the unease with the economy led many Americans to look elsewhere. Conservatives still smarted from the tax increase of 1990.
Democrats nominated Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who chose Al Gore of Tennessee as his running mate. Clinton led the Democratic Leadership Council, a group of moderate Democrats, in 1990-91. Clinton issues:
faced constant questions about his fidelity to his wife Hillary.
marijuana use: “smoked, but didn’t inhale”
draft dodging in the Vietnam War
business deals in Arkansas
Major problem: H. Ross Perot of Texas entered the race as a third-party candidate. Perot dropped out of the race just before the DNC, but re-entered in October. Defining moment of the Perot candidacy: James Stockdale in the vice-presidential debate: “Who am I? Why am I here?”
Result: Clinton won ~45 million votes, Bush ~39 million, Perot ~19.7 million. Clinton won 370 electoral votes to Bush’ 168.
Women who won: Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of CA, Carol Moseley Braun of IL.
Clinton Presidency, Term 1
Bad start: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy RE: homosexuals in the military. The religious right never forgave Clinton for even thinking about lifting the ban against homosexuals in the military.
Raised taxes and cut spending to cut the deficit to $255 billion in 1993 and $203 billion in 1994. Attacked by GOP for “tax and spend” policies.
Pushed ratification of NAFTA in 1993. 1994: pushed through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993: required employers to give unpaid medical leave for pregnancy or serious medical conditions.
Brady Bill: 5-day waiting period on handgun purchases.
Health care: put Hillary in charge of a commission to reform health care. Conservative response: “Harry and Louise” ads: “They choose, we lose.”
Whitewater: real estate venture on the Whitewater River, tied with James and Susan McDougal and their failed S&L. Independent counsel Robert Fiske (Republican) found nothing tying the Clinton’s to aide’s Vincent Foster’s suicide. Fiske was replaced with Kenneth Starr.
Spring 1994: Paula Jones filed a civil rights lawsuit accusing Clinton of sexual harassment in 1991.
Foreign policy:
Somolia disaster
Haiti: sent peace-keeping forces in to restore order and prevent a flood of Haitian immigrants into Florida
Bosnia: Inherited Bush’ involvement; maintained U.S. forces in Bosnia.
Northern Ireland: Clinton negotiated peace between Ireland, Britain, and the IRA’s Sinn Fein.
Middle East: Yasir Arafat and Ritzhak Rabin finalized the Oslo Accords in Washington, D.C.; provided for a Palestinian state in the Middle East. Palestinian Liberation Organization would recognize Israel’s right to exist.
1994 Elections
GOP: Led by Newt Gingrich, proposed the Contract with America:
require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
limit the terms of all committee chairs;
ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
require committee meetings to be open to the public;
require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
and implement a zero base-line budgeting process for the annual Federal Budget.
(Source: wikipedia.org, Contract with America, last accessed 25 April 2006)
Result: GOP sweep of both Houses of Congress (235 to 197 in House, 53 to 47 in Senate). Gingrich called Clinton “irrelevant.” GOP implemented most of the Contract within 100 days; balanced budget amendment failed to pass Senate by a single vote, and the term limit amendment failed as well.
1994 Events
O.J. Simpson case in L.A.: Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered; Simpson was acquitted in September 1995.
CA: Proposition 187: barred illegal immigrants from receiving state benefits in education and health care. Possibly as many as 13 million illegal immigrants entered the nation in the 1990’s.
1995 Events
19 April: Oklahoma City: bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested and convicted; McVeigh was later executed in 2001 for his part.
GOP lawmakers overreached on trying to lift regulations on environment and businesses. Clinton vetoed a bill that would have cut a billion dollars from education funding.
Bosnia: Clinton ordered air strikes in August against Bosnian Serbs to protect Bosnian Muslims. November: Dayton Accords, signed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH.
1996 Elections
Democrats: Clinton-Gore
GOP: Bob Dole of KS and Jack Kemp of NY
Gingrich-led GOP shutdowns of government backfired; people blamed Congress rather than the President.
Whitewater: Starr subpoenaded Hillary to testify but the grand jury returned no verdicts.
Welfare reform: Clinton joined with Republicans to replace AFCD with block grants to the states; immigrants were ineligible for benefits for their first 5 years of residency.
August: GOP joined with Clinton to raise the minimum wage to $5.15/hour
Perot came back, but he couldn’t get on the ballot in the states this time.
Clinton problem: campaign contributions from Communist China and Indonesia. U.S. law prohibits campaign contributions from non-American sources. Democratic National Committee was fined $115,000 in 2002.
Result: Clinton victory, but GOP retained control of Congress.
Clinton: Second Term
Secretary of State: Madeleine Albright.
Secretary of Defense: William Cohen of Maine, GOP
Foreign policy: pushed for admittance of former Warsaw Pact nations in NATO. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined, but no nuclear weapons or large numbers of troops were sent to those areas to pacify the Russians.
Economy boomed; unemployment fell to 4.8%, 1997 budget deficit was only $25 billion, 1998 saw a budget surplus.
1997:
Promise Keepers, “Stand in the Gap” event in Washington: approximately 1 million men joined together on the National Mall for 6 hours of prayer, repentance, and worship.
Clinton v. Jones: Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Jones’ suit could go forward while Clinton was in office.
1998: Monica Lewinsky, intern in the White House
Ken Starr reported to the House of Representatives that Clinton could be impeached for lying under oath, obstruction of justice, and abuse of power.
GOP: impeach Clinton! House adopted 2 articles of impeachment.
Nation: don’t! GOP lost 5 seats in the House in mid-term elections; retained Senate 55-45.
George W. Bush won the governor’s election in TX; Jeb Bush in FL
1999: Clinton acquitted by the Senate on both counts.
Clinton left office with a 68% approval rating.