1. The New Millenium

2. Election of 2000
• George W. Bush (Republican) vs. Al Gore
(Democrat)
• Gore:
• VP
• Lacked a strong personality
• Bush:
• Texas Governor
• Son of a President
• Hoped to return morality & respect to White House

3. Election of 2000
• What should gov’t do w/ surplus
• $237 Billion
• Bush==Tax Cut
• Democrats said tax cut would go to wealthy
• Democrats thought that surplus should be used to
protect Social Security

4. Election of 2000
• To close to call
• Florida would have a recount
• Did Nader (Green Party) stop Gore from winning FL?
• Hanging chads???
• Florida became a battleground filled w/ lawyers, politicians,
media, etc.
• 36 days later the SC settled it in Bush v. Gore
• 5-4 they ruled to discontinue all recounts in FL
• Bush had secured the presidency
• 4th time candidate w/ most popular votes lost
• 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000

9. Bush Presidency
• Approach was more “corporate” compared to
Clinton’s laid back style
• Strict schedule
• Woke up early & left office at the end of the workday
• Clinton often worked long into the night, but had
more casual style
• Bush gave more power to his Cabinet, esp. VP Dick
Cheney

10. Bush Presidency
• Major tax cut, largest in history
• Cuts favored the wealthy
• Most taxpayers received a rebate of $300
• Hoped to jumpstart a faltering economy
• Recession after dot-com bubble burst
• Education reform---NCLB
• Accountability, “high-stakes testing”
• Federal funding tied to test scores

11. 1st term
• 9/11/2001
• NYC, Washington DC
• Hijacked commercial planes
• Both towers of NYC’s World Trade Center
• Pentagon
• 4th plane outside of Pittsburgh
• 266 passengers & crew died on planes

12. 1st term
• 180 died in Pentagon
• WTC buildings, 110 stories high, crumbled to the
ground
• Roughly 2,800 died
• Osama Bin Laden, head of Al Qaeda
• Taliban provided sanctuary for Bin Laden in
Afghanistan
• Taliban refused to turn over Bin Laden
• Bush to Taliban, they will “pay a price”

13. 1st term
• “War on Terrorism”
• Oct. 7, 2001—”Operation Enduring Freedom”
• Bombing campaign aimed at Taliban military & communication bases
• W/in a few months an interim gov’t est. in Kabul (capital of Afghanistan)
& Taliban was mostly wiped out
• Many taken to prison at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba
• Taliban/Ql Qaeda fighters fled Kabul for mountains
• Bin Laden was in hiding
• Taken out by Navy SEALs in May of 2011
• 2K+ Americans killed
• American troops still present
• Withdrawal under way

14. 1st term
• W/in month of 9/11 Bush created new executive
department: Homeland Security
• Beefed up presence at airports
• Headed by PA Governor, Tom Ridge
• Anthrax scares (in mail)
• News media, Senators,
• 18 infected, 5 died

15. 1st term
• Jan. 2002, Bush speaks of an “axis of evil”
• Included Iraq, Iran, North Korea
• Bush administration started to build a case for invading Iraq
• Oct. 2002, Congress passes resolution allowing the President to use force
against Iraq
• War began on March 19, 2003
• “Coalition of the willing”—20 nations (most notable==UK)
• “Operation Iraqi Freedom”
• Reasoning=connections to terrorist groups & WMDs?
• Additionally Hussein’s gov’t had major violations of human rights
• Saddam Hussein was captured in Dec. of 2003
• Sentenced to death by Iraqi Special Tribunal
• Executed in Dec. of 2006

17. • MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
SPEECH
• May 1, 2003
• Televised address onboard
the USS Abraham Lincoln
• “Mission Accomplished”
Banner
• “…the tyrant has fallen and
Iraq is free.”
• “The battle of Iraq is one
victory in a war on terror
that began on September
the 11th, 2001 and still goes
on.”

19. 1st term
• All American troops were
withdrawn from Iraq by the
end of 2011
• 4K+ Americans killed
• 30K+ wounded

20. WAR on terror--
controversy
• Surveillance
• Patriot Act, NSA
• Waterboarding
• Prosecution of unlawful enemy combatants by
military commission rather than a standard trial
• Some held for months, even years, w/o access to
lawyers
• Intense interrogations, even torture
• In 2008 Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay,
but still open today (150+ detainees)

21. Election of 2004
• Bush, Republican
• “JOhn KErry”
• “Kerry is Scary”
• Bush called Kerry a
“Massachusetts liberal” &
a
“flip-flopper”
• John Kerry, Democrat,
long-time Senator from MA
• “Kerry Bush Out”
• “More Trees, Less Bush”
• “Stronger at Home and
More Respected in the
World”
• Kerry touted his Vietnam
War experience

22. Election of 2004
• High voter turnout, another
close election expected
• 12 million more than 2000
• Both Bush & Kerry
received more popular
votes than any previous
candidate

24. 2nd term
• Hurricane Katrina, Aug.
2005
• Bush declared a state of
disaster in LA, MS, & AL
• FEMA’s response was slow
& flawed
• Some argued the response
was limited due to the Iraq
War
• 2007, U.S. entered
recession
• Bush signed into a law a
$170 billion stimulus
package
• 500,000 jobs lost in
November, 2008 alone
• GDP grew slower during
Bush’s Presidency than the
norm

25. Etc.
• Entered White House w/
50% approval, 80-90%
after 9/11, fell to as low as
19% in 2nd term
• Final approval rating was
34% according to Gallup
• Similar to Jimmy Carter
• 2000 & 2004, Time
“Person of the Year”
• Close to Tony Blair of UK &
Vicente Fox of Mexico
• Rising tensions w/ Putin by
end of 2nd term

27. Election of 2008
• Barack Obama & Joe
Biden, Democrats
• Obama defeats Clinton by
early June
• Obama=limited political
experience at national level
• Senator from Illinois from
2005 to 2008
• Born in Hawaii, controversy
over birth certificate
• John McCain & Sarah
Palin, Republicans
• Palin, Governor of Alaska,
was a surprise
pick/controversial move
• McCain was a prisoner of
war in North Vietnam for
5.5 years
• McCain=Long-time Senator
from AZ

28. Election of 2008
• Issues
• Iraq War
• McCain supported it, Obama opposed it
• McCain commented that the U.S. could be Iraq for the
next “50 to 100” years
• Bush’s unpopularity
• Bush did no campaigning
• Change vs. Experience
• The economy
• Health care

30. Election of 2008
• Popular vote
• Obama=52.9%
• McCain=45.7%
• 131.3 million voted, highest turnout ever, 60+%
• 62 votes for Santa Claus
• 11 votes for Mickey Mouse