Election of 2000 Dem – VP Al Gore • Stiff personality, very environmental

• Running mate – CT Senator Joe Lieberman – critic of Clinton scandal, 1st Jewish candidate on Presidential ticket

Rep – George W. Bush (TX Gov) • Running Mate – Dick Cheney – former Sec of Defense,

key planner in Persian Gulf War

• Will “restore dignity to the White House”

• We will be a “humble America”

Green Party – Ralph Nader

• Took away environmentalists

Election of 2000 Issue: Surplus $

Bush - return 2/3 to the people in the form of a tax cut

• private sector initiatives – school vouchers, reform SS

Gore – modest tax cut to help middle and lower classes

• use surplus to reduce/eliminate any debt, shore up SS, expand Medicare

Election of 2000 Controversy

• Like the Hayes-Tilden standoff of 1876

• Florida was the pivotal state (Jeb Bush is Gov)

– So close that state law compelled a recount

– 2nd tally – Bush wins

– Dems demand a hand recount due to confusing ballots, faulty voting machines

– Republicans turn to courts to deny recount

• Bush v. Gore (2000) – Sup Ct stopped a recount, Bush is the winner (5:4 vote)

• Bush is an illegitimate president?

Election of 2000 Bush 271 Gore 266

-Gore won pop. vote (50,999,897 to 50,456,002)

President George W. Bush 2001-2009 Republican

Presidential Rankings: C-Span Survey, 2009

1. Abraham Lincoln

2. Franklin Roosevelt

3. George Washington

4. Theodore Roosevelt

5. Harry Truman

6. John Kennedy

7. Thomas Jefferson

8. Dwight Eisenhower

9. Woodrow Wilson

10. Ronald Reagan

11. Lyndon Johnson

12. James Polk

13. Andrew Jackson

14. James Monroe

15. Bill Clinton

16. William McKinley

17. John Adams

18. George H.W. Bush

19. John Quincy Adams

20. James Madison

21. Grover Cleveland

22. Gerald Ford

23. Ulysses Grant

24. William Taft

25. Jimmy Carter

26. Calvin Coolidge

27. Richard Nixon

28. James Garfield

29. Zachary Taylor

30. Benjamin Harrison

31. Martin Van Buren

32. Chester Arthur

33. Rutherford Hayes

34. Herbert Hoover

35. John Tyler

36. George W. Bush

37. Millard Fillmore

38. Warren Harding

39. William Harrison

40. Franklin Pierce

41. Andrew Johnson

42. James Buchanan

Characteristics

• Raised in TX, said he was a self-made man

• Degrees from Yale and Harvard

• When Governor, worked well with Dems in state legislature – wants to bring skills to WH

• More of a divider than a unifier

Initial Policies

• Withdrew US support of any program pro-abortion, limited govt sponsored stem cell research (key to Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s?)

• Challenged scientific findings on groundwater contamination and global warming

• Ended Kyoto Treaty – limited greenhouse gas emissions

• Advocated oil exploration in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

• Allowed Cheney to hammer out energy policy in secret meetings with giant oil companies

• $1.3 trillion tax cut turned surplus into deficit

2001 Tax Cut

• Across the board tax cuts disproportionately favored wealthy Americans

• Reduced gov’t revenues contributed to a $10 trillion increase in the national debt

Domestic Policy • Enron – corporate fraud

• 2003 – Cali used recall procedure to throw out Governor – enter Arnold Schwarzenegger

September 11, 2001

• Two 747 passenger airliners crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center

Bush’s address to Congress 9

days later:

The enemy is Bin Laden and

Al Qaeda (“the base” in

Arabic)

Diagram of the impact zones and airplane

debris

A 747 airliner flew into the Pentagon

Flight 93, most likely headed for the Capitol Building/WH, crashed in PA, when passengers overcame the hijackers

Flight 93 Crashes in PA

Repairing the Pentagon

Terrorism • Osama Bin Laden – wealthy extremist

exiled from Saudi Arabia

• Attacked US embassies in E. Africa, US Navy vessel in Yemen

• Took refuge in Afghanistan with the Taliban – Islamic fundamentalists

Terrorism • US helped bring the Taliban to power

when resisting Soviets in Afghanistan

• Bin Laden didn’t like US military presence in Middle East and US support of Israel

• US strength made it a target

Terrorism War on Terror – War in Afghanistan

• Taliban refused to hand Bin Laden over – US overthrows Taliban in Afghanistan in 3 mo. but doesn’t get Bin Laden

• All this coincided with a recession

America shunned air travel/tourism

• Anthrax letters kill Americans

War in Afghanistan

• Creating a stable government in Afghanistan proved painful and elusive.

• The U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003 diverted resources from the war in Afghanistan.

• By 2011, the war had become the longest in U.S. history.

Terrorism • Patriot Act (2001) – extensive

phone/email surveillance, detention and deportation of immigrants suspected of terrorism

– Violation of civil liberties?

• Dept of Homeland Security – protect borders and find potential terrorists

– Immigrants held w/o habeas corpus

– Military tribunals to try suspected terrorists – no rules of evidence/procedure

– 100s of Taliban captured and held at Guantanamo Bay

• Saddam Hussein was defying UN weapons inspections – mandated after Persian Gulf War

– 1998 – expelled UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) & International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

– Clinton declared Saddam’s removal was a goal of US policy – no military action though

THE IRAQ WAR

• 2003 - Bush decided to remove Saddam Hussein from power

• Called Iraq, Iran, & N. Korea the “Axis of Evil”

• Wants to wage a preemptive strike vs. Iraq – alone if necessary

• Iraq’s wrongdoing:

– Oppressed people, no inspections

– WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction)?

– Supported Al Qaeda?

• A democratized Iraq would stabilize ME situation

• W. Allies don’t agree

• Sec of State Colin Powell warned against consequences of invading an unstable, religiously and culturally divided nation of 25 mil people

– “You break it, you own it.”

• Congressional Approval - Congress authorized an armed force to defend against Iraqi threats and to enforce UN resolutions

• UN decision - UN says to give Iraq another chance, no force necessary

– GB is our only help

• Attack on Iraq - March 19, 2003

– 1 mo. Later – Baghdad fell, Saddam in hiding (found 9 mo. Later)

– May 1, 2003 – Bush says “mission accomplished”

– Hussein executed in 2006

Owning Iraq

• Combat over, not conflict

• Factions jockeyed for power (Shia v. Sunni)

• US troops were attacked

• American abuse of Iraqi prisoners = anti-American sentiment in entire region

• June 28, 2004 – handed over political power to an interim Iraqi govt (limited sovereignty)

– 2005 – elected a President (Shia) and a PM

– Sunni Muslims turn to bombings and political assassinations

– Still no evidence of WMDs, no links between Saddam and Al Qaeda

• 4200 US soldiers killed, hundreds of billions spent

Election of 2004 Dem – John Kerry

• Lincolnesque

• Decorated Vietnam vet – will also attack terrorism

– Was an anti-Vietnam activist later

• Contradictory career in Senate

– For a military bill then against it

– Considered a flip-flopper

Election of 2004 Rep – George W. Bush

• Taxes, terrorism, moral values

– Tax cuts

– Strong commander-in-chief who is facing down terrorist threat

– Prescription drug benefit for senior citizens

– No stem cell research

– Wants amendment banning gay marriage

– No Child Left Behind – sanctions against schools that failed to meet standards

Votes: 286 to 252 (62 to 59 mil) -Bush got Catholics, Latinos, Bible Belt, suburban votes

Domestic Policy • US is very divided

– Dems upset over stolen election, Civil Libertarians upset at Patriot Act, Anti-war protestors

• Split over abortion, gay marriage, aff. Action

2nd term • Appointed 2 new conservative Sup. Court justices • Wanted to privatize Social Security – protests by the

AARP • Scandals: VP Cheney’s Chief of Staff committed

perjury, illegal wiretaps of citizens, incompetence • Dems gain control of Congress – Nancy Pelosi is 1st

female Speaker of the House • Hurricane Katrina, 2005 – devastated New Orleans

– 1300 deaths, $150 billion in damages – Public criticized Bush for slow and half-hearted attempt

to help

• Sent 20,000 troops back to Iraq in 2007 to create stability

• The Great Recession began in 2008 – meltdown in the mortgage industry

The Election of 2008

• Republican – John McCain (AZ Sen)

–Vietnam War hero – POW

–Running Mate – Sarah Palin

• Democrat – Barack Obama (IL Sen)

– VP – Joe Biden

– “Yes we can”

– Platform: promised no division, get out of Iraq, nationalize health care, tax wealthy

– Close primary race with Hillary

• Backdrop: Economy

Results:

-Obama defeated McCain 365 to 173 in the electoral college and became the first African American president in the history of the country.

The Democrats held majorities in both houses of Congress, opening the door for the passage of Obama’s agenda.

DOMESTIC POLICY

The Presidency of Barack Obama

“Great Recession” (2007-09)

• Worst economic downturn since the GD

• Unemployment went up from 4% to 10%

• Deleveraging – institutions don’t want to have debt

• Govt nationalized 2 mortgage companies, took over biggest insurance company

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

• A trillion dollar stimulus bill

– Tax cuts, spending for job, funds to states, improving infrastructure, schools, scientific research

– Opponents claim the stimulus was largely wasteful and added to the nation’s burgeoning national debt

Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), 2010

• Obama’s most important (and most controversial) achievement

• Sought to cover every American while lowering medical costs (socialism?)

– 2009 - 50.7 million people without health insurance (16.7% of the population).

– 2014 – 20 million of that were covered by ACA

• Became a part of the 2012 election

• Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality

Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, 2010

• Considered by some as the most significant reform of financial regulation since the Great Depression

• Sought to regulate the financial industry to prevent practices that led to crisis

– Curb risky practices

Bailout of the Auto Industry

1. Large government loans helped prop up General Motors and Chrysler at a time when they seemed likely to collapse.

2. Critics of the bailout saw it as the government takeover of the auto industry and major financial firms.

3. Within a year, most of the money that had been loaned by the government had been paid back.

Tea Party forms

-conservative political movement

-against socialism, unconstitutional controls over individual lives

-demands a reduction in debt (now 14.3 bil)

-Street-theater demonstrations

FOREIGN POLICY

Arab Spring, 2010

• Revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests/riots/civil wars in the Arab world

• Began in Tunisia and spread throughout region

• Described as a wave of popular uprisings against an oppressive rule

– Many rulers fell from power

– Similar to Revs of 1989

Iraq

• withdrew combat troops in 2011

• Some stayed to protect US bases and promote stability there

Afghanistan

• More jihadi fighters

• Taliban and al-Qaeda found refuge in Pakistan

• Obama said they will withdraw in 2011 but must send 30,000 to combat insurgency

Death of Osama bin Laden, May 2, 2011

• intelligence reports pointed to the al Qaeda leader’s location in Pakistan.

• Obama ordered the raid without informing the Pakistanis of the mission.

• A naval SEAL team successfully carried out the CIA-led operation.

Election of 2012

Democrat - Obama

Republican – Mitt Romney

Votes: 332-206

-Legislative gridlock = 16 day government shut down in Oct 2013

-DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) failed – path to citizenship through college or armed forces

-Environmental issues: ozone depletion, global warming – Paris Agreement – 2015 – countries agree to reduce greenhouse gas

emissions

- SC – appoints two women to the court - One is the first Latino justice

Gay Rights

• “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed in 2010

• Windsor v. US –

– SC overturns DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act)

• Obergefell v. Hodges –

– SC declares same-sex marriage constitutional in all states

Benghazi attack – Sept 11, 2012 -Islamic militants attacked the American

diplomatic compound in Libya -cover-up of a security breakdown? - Nothing has been found in several

investigations so far

(ISIS) Islamic State

Islamic extremist organization that seeks to create a transnational Islamic caliphate

• Controls territory in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Nigeria

• Operations in Lebanon, Egypt, Asia, etc

• Claimed responsibility for Paris/Brussels attacks