ME - Clinton, Bush & Obama Lesson

Clinton, Bush & Obama

Clinton Administration

Bill Clinton's presidency included ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA brought Mexico into a free-trade zone already existing between the United States and Canada. Opponents believed NAFTA would send U.S. jobs to Mexico and harm the environment, while supporters believed it would open up the growing Mexican market to U.S. companies; these pros and cons are still argued today.

Clinton also became the second president in U.S. history to suffer impeachment. The House of Representatives charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The charges were based on accusations of improper use of money from a real estate deal and allegations he had lied under oath about an improper relationship with a White House intern. However, the Senate acquitted him, allowing Clinton to remain in office and finish his second term.

2000 Presidential Election

The presidential election of 2000 saw Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, facing the Republican governor of Texas, George W. Bush, as well as consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who ran as a third-party candidate. Polls showed the race would be close, and it turned out to be one of the closest elections in American history. Gore won the national popular vote by over 500,000 of the 105 million votes cast, but when American voters cast ballots for president, the national popular vote has no legal significance. Rather, Americans are voting for members of the Electoral College representing each candidate. Each state is assigned "electors" in equal number to its total amount of U.S. representatives and senators. In the 2000 election, Bush won by receiving 271 votes in the Electoral College to Gore's 266.

Bush Administration

George W. Bush's presidency will always be remembered for al-Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001 (9/11). In response, and with overwhelming support of both Congress and the American people, he signed a law the next month to allow the U.S. government to hold foreign citizens suspected of being terrorists for up to seven days without charging them with a crime. This law also increased the ability of American law-enforcement agencies to search private communications and personal records. Then he created the Department of Homeland Security and charged it with protecting the United States from terrorist attacks and responding to natural disasters.

In October 2001, another of Bush's responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks was his authorizing Operation Enduring Freedom, the invasion of Afghanistan by the U.S. military and allied forces. That country's Taliban government was harboring the al-Qaeda leadership. The allied forces quickly defeated the Taliban government and destroyed the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan. The al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden escaped, but was later killed by U.S forces in 2011. U.S. forces continued to undertake military operations in Afghanistan for over a decade after the initial invasion.

The invasion of Afghanistan was part of Bush's larger war on terrorism, for which he built an international coalition to fight the al-Qaeda network and other terrorist groups. In March 2003, American and British troops invaded Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, went into hiding while U.S. forces searched for the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that Bush feared Hussein had and could supply to terrorists for use against the United States. No WMD were found before Hussein was captured. He was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed in 2006. There was continued fighting in Iraq after this, but the situation had stabilized considerably by the time Bush left office.

Barack Obama and Change

Toward the end of George W. Bush's presidency the economy took a downward turn. Gas prices and unemployment rose, large companies were in danger of bankruptcy, and many lost their homes to foreclosure. Against the backdrop of the declining economy and decline in support for American involvement in foreign wars, a key theme of the election of 2008 was "change". Democratic candidate Barack Obama was elected by a wide margin in the election. This made history as Obama become the first African American to hold the office of presidency of the United States. 

The Obama Administration found successes in the withdrawal of many combat troops from a more-stabilized Iraq and the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. However, President Obama faced many challenges during his early years as President. The economy continued to struggle with key issues being the continuation of high gas prices and unemployment. The war in Afghanistan continued to feature fierce fighting. Budget deficits continued to climb. President Obama was able to get a major overhaul of the healthcare system passed, but the program was challenged legally in the courts (which it survived) and unpopular with segments of the population. Despite these challenges President Obama was elected to a second term by a wide margin in 2012.

Technological Wonders

In addition to the television, other post-War advances in technology brought Americans closer together than ever before. Telephone lines covered the country, allowing people to stay in contact regardless of distance. By the 1970s, early versions of today's personal computers, the Internet, and cellular phones gave a few Americans a glimpse of the technologies that someday would connect everyone to each other regardless of where they were and would become as common as typewriters and public phone booths were in the 1970s. 

 

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