George Bush

V

Presidential Campaign and Election

In the early months of his second term, Bush talked with Republican leaders, consultants, and strategists about the possibility of running for president of the United States. In early 1999, at a highly anticipated appearance in Austin, Texas, Bush announced that he was forming a committee to explore the idea of a presidential campaign. In June Bush announced his candidacy for president.

By the summer of 1999, Bush was actively campaigning for the presidency against a field of fellow Republicans that eventually included businessman Steve Forbes, former Reagan adviser Gary Bauer, Utah senator Orrin Hatch, former vice president Dan Quayle, former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander, former ambassador Alan Keyes, former head of the Red Cross Elizabeth Dole, and Arizona senator John McCain. In August 1999 Bush emerged victorious in the Iowa Straw Poll, one of the early, preprimary contests to help determine the party frontrunner.

Through the early phases of his campaign, Bush continued to describe himself as a compassionate conservative. Some of his opponents suggested that he was not committed to true conservative principles and that he was using the slogan to lure independent and Democratic voters. Bush repeatedly said that he would make education a centerpiece of his administration and that he would strengthen the military. He also pledged to aid minorities by combating what he called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” He promised to cut taxes, pointing to the tax cuts in Texas during his administration. By early 2000 the Republican contest increasingly centered on Bush and McCain.

After McCain defeated him in the New Hampshire primary, Bush rebounded with a victory in South Carolina. His win in South Carolina set the stage for an eventual triumph in the final round of primaries. Through the primary season, his mother and father made appearances on his behalf. Critics continued to suggest that he was riding his father’s coattails. Some also contended that he lacked the experience necessary to be president since he had only been in office since 1995. Bush replied that, as governor of Texas, he was overseeing a state whose economy, population, and area were larger than those of many countries. By June the Bush campaign had raised over $85 million, a record-setting amount of money for a presidential race.

---

---

In the weeks leading to the Republican National Convention in July, Bush traveled cross-country. Among his travels was a high-profile visit to the convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His allies lauded him for reaching out to minorities; his critics said that he had not delivered enough specific solutions to minority concerns. Just prior to the Republican National Convention, Bush picked Dick Cheney as his vice-presidential running mate.

Bush had originally chosen Cheney to oversee the selection process for a vice-presidential candidate. Cheney had a lengthy record in elected and appointed offices and had served as chief of staff for President Gerald Ford and as secretary of defense for Bush’s father, President George Bush. Bush’s supporters saw the selection of Cheney as a way to offset accusations that Bush did not have the necessary experience to serve in the White House. Critics of the choice said that Bush was relying on his father’s old advisers and that Cheney’s conservative voting record in Congress would displease minorities and Democrats.

On the final night of the convention, Bush delivered one of the most important speeches of his life, as he formally accepted the Republican nomination for president. Before thousands of supporters, he outlined his basic political philosophy of compassionate conservatism. In his speech he also chided the Clinton-Gore administration, saying it had not lived up to its potential. While supporters applauded Bush’s speech as a call for renewed moral leadership, critics focused on its failure to set forth specific policy proposals. Immediately following the convention Bush and Cheney began a series of train trips across the country to promote their candidacy.

During the campaign, Bush’s main opponents were Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic Party nominee; consumer activist Ralph Nader, the Green Party nominee; and political commentator Pat Buchanan, who ran on the Reform Party ticket. Bush focused on issues such as providing tax cuts and improving education. He also expressed a desire to change social security by letting people invest a portion of their funds in the stock market. Bush participated in three debates with Gore. He also spent time campaigning in states such as Pennsylvania, Florida, and Oregon, which were very closely divided between the two candidates.

On November 7, as election returns came in, Bush won 29 states, primarily in the West and South, including Wyoming, Utah, Georgia, and Alabama. He also won some traditionally Democratic states such as West Virginia and Gore’s home state of Tennessee. However, as the night wore on, it became clear that the presidential race would be extremely close. Both candidates needed to win Florida to receive the 270 electoral votes necessary to become president. When Florida’s vote was counted, Bush had more votes than Gore, but the candidates were separated by less than one-half of one percent of the tally. Florida law dictates that an automatic recount be performed if the candidates are separated by only one-half of one percent.

The next day, Florida began recounting its votes while Bush waited to learn if he would become the president of the United States. The state was also waiting to receive and count overseas absentee ballots. After Florida finished its recount, Bush was still ahead in Florida, but only by about 300 votes.

With the vote so close, Democrats pressed for a manual recount in four heavily Democratic counties, arguing that machine tallies had failed to accurately record all of the votes cast for president. The Bush team went to court to prevent the manual recount, charging that the votes had already been recounted once and that a manual count introduced the possibility of human error. Florida’s secretary of state set a deadline of November 14 for submitting the recounted votes for certification. However, some counties could not finish their manual recounts by the deadline. Gore went to court to seek to have all the manual recounts included in the final tally. The Florida Supreme Court then ordered the secretary of state to delay the certification of votes until it could hear the case.

On November 21 the Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the manual recounts should be included and had to be submitted to the secretary of state by November 26. Bush disagreed with the decision and appealed his case to the United States Supreme Court. On November 26 Florida certified its election results, including its overseas ballots, and Bush won the state by just over 500 votes. Gore, however, still felt that some votes had been excluded, and he contested the certified results in court.

On December 4, after considering arguments from both sides, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Florida Supreme Court to clarify its ruling. The same day, a Florida circuit court judge ruled against Gore’s request for additional recounts. The ruling was a victory for Bush. However, Gore appealed that case to the Florida Supreme Court.

On December 8 the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the additional recounts should be allowed to proceed. Bush then appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. He also asked the Court to stop the recounts from proceeding until the Court had a chance to hear the case. On December 9 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay, stopping all the recounts until after it heard the case, which it did on December 11. On December 12 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Florida recounts were unconstitutional because the recounts violated the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution. The Court argued that not all votes were being treated equally because there was no clear standard for how to do manual recounts. The decision was a huge victory for Bush. On December 13, five weeks after the election, Gore officially conceded the race to Bush, and Bush became the president-elect of the United States. See also Disputed Presidential Election of 2000.

VI

President of the United States

Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd president of the United States on January 20, 2001. In his inaugural address, he repeatedly touched on the theme of compassion and emphasized a need for civility in modern society. He promised to reform social security and Medicare, to reduce taxes, and to “confront weapons of mass destruction.” He spoke, in broad terms, of addressing poverty and encouraging personal responsibility.

A

Appointments

When Bush assembled his Cabinet, he sought a mixture of Washington veterans, academics, businesspeople, and officials from state government. He appointed Colin Powell, the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as secretary of state; Condoleezza Rice, a Stanford University political science professor, as national security adviser; and Rod Paige, superintendent of the Houston, Texas, school district, as secretary of education. He also named Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense; Rumsfeld had served previously as secretary of defense under President Gerald Ford. Bush nominated one Democrat to his Cabinet, Norman Mineta, as secretary of transportation. Bush’s Cabinet reflected much of the diversity of the country, including three African Americans, two Asians, five women, and one Hispanic.

Bush suffered one setback when Linda Chavez, his nominee for secretary of labor, withdrew her name from consideration after questions emerged over whether she had employed an illegal immigrant. Bush replaced her with Elaine Chao, who had extensive experience in the nonprofit sector including being director of the Peace Corps. Bush’s nominee for attorney general, John Ashcroft, a former senator from Missouri, faced tough questioning about his conservative positions by Democrats in the Senate before he was confirmed. Some environmental advocates expressed concern with Bush’s choice for secretary of the interior, Gale Norton, because of some of her positions, including her support for opening some public lands for development. Some proponents of welfare reform were pleased when Bush selected Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson as secretary of health and human services; Thompson had led sweeping reforms of the welfare system in his state.

B

Domestic Affairs

In the first weeks of his administration, Bush was at times overshadowed by media coverage and congressional inquiries into the last-minute presidential pardons that Bill Clinton had granted before leaving office. However, Bush focused on his program, including making education his first legislative priority. In his first days in office, Bush announced his education plan, which included initiatives to give states more control over federal education spending and annual testing of students to measure performance. This plan came to fruition in January 2002, when Bush signed into law an education bill that increased federal spending on education and established a system for annual testing.

Bush also created an Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House. This office was designed to work with government agencies to provide funds to faith-based organizations so that these organizations could assume more responsibility for addressing the nation’s social problems, such as poverty, hunger, and homelessness. The creation of the office followed through on one of Bush’s campaign pledges.

B

1

Tax Cuts

In February 2001 Bush introduced a $1.96 trillion federal budget that included tax relief and increased funding for education and the military. Amid debate on how best to utilize the federal surplus, Bush advocated a $1.6 trillion tax cut over ten years, arguing that “the surplus is not the government’s money. The surplus is the people’s money.” As he began pushing his economic agenda forward, Bush was faced with mounting evidence that the U.S. economy was slowing down. He argued that Congress should approve his tax cut to help stimulate the economy.

Democratic leaders immediately assailed Bush’s budget proposals as fiscally irresponsible. They suggested that the government surplus should be used for government programs such as social security and that the tax cut would benefit only wealthy Americans. Critics of Bush’s plan also faulted him for proposed cuts in several federal departments and agencies, including the Departments of Transportation, Agriculture, Labor, Interior, Energy, and Justice. Congressional Democrats vowed to battle both the scope of Bush’s tax cuts and the cutbacks at the federal level.

Bush achieved a major success in June 2001 when he signed a $1.35-trillion tax-cut bill. The bill, which takes effect over a ten-year period, lowers income tax rates for all taxpayers and doubles the child tax credit. It also lowers the tax penalty on married couples and phases out the estate tax in its final year, although the abolition is not permanent. Bush pointed to the success of the tax-cut bill as an example of congressional bipartisanship. The previous month, however, Bush suffered a setback when Senator James Jeffords of Vermont announced that he was leaving the Republican Party to become an independent. Jeffords’s move shifted control of the Senate from the Republican Party to the Democrats.

The Republicans regained control of the Senate in the midterm elections of 2002. Bush campaigned energetically for Republicans, and his efforts, along with his high approval rating, helped them gain seats in the Senate and increase their majority in the House of Representatives.

With control of Congress, the Bush administration decided to press on with its tax cut proposals. In May 2003 Bush achieved a major victory when Congress passed one of the biggest tax cuts in history, some $330 billion through the next decade. His supporters said the tax cuts would further stimulate the economy; critics said the tax cuts would lead to huge deficits that could cause economic hardship in the future.

	More from Encarta
	•  7 tips for funding an online degree •  How to succeed in the fashion industry without being a top designer •  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain