Latest / Saberian History Lectures / Clinton 1996-2000
Transcript
- 0:00Alright, so today we're going to talk about what
- 0:03I call the middle and late period of Clinton.
- 0:07So again, as I said the other day, if I could
- 0:10break the Clinton administration up, I would
- 0:13break it up into two, really three periods. First
- 0:15period was 1993 through 1995 where the Democrats
- 0:21had control over the White House, the House,
- 0:22and the Senate. After the election of 1994, the
- 0:26Republican Party would dominate the House and
- 0:28the Senate for practically a generation. They
- 0:31hold the House and the Senate from 1994 until
- 0:332000 or from 1995 until 2007. So we also left
- 0:42off with the Massive economic prosperity. Okay?
- 0:50So let's talk about the economic prosperity in
- 0:52the new economy. So the economic boom time of
- 0:57the 1990s was a period of extraordinarily low
- 1:00unemployment, low inflation, low interest rates.
- 1:04Things were good. Now, what makes economic growth?
- 1:10We had talked about this last class, but... New
- 1:13sources of capital. And so to have that you had
- 1:17two new sources of capital. The first is your
- 1:21trade agreements. You had NAFTA, you also had
- 1:24a general agreement on tariffs and trades between
- 1:27the United States and multiple nation states.
- 1:30And so the consensus had been among the nations
- 1:35and in the United States, and it was a bipartisan
- 1:37consensus that free trade is good. Now, a couple
- 1:42of things I kind of want to bring up. In effect,
- 1:47A trade agreement is a tax cut because you are
- 1:51not having taxes levied on imports, nor are you
- 1:55having taxes levied on exports. Now also, these
- 2:04trade agreements allow capital to flow into the
- 2:08United States, not just from among Americans,
- 2:11but also from other countries. So it allows for
- 2:13a greater degree of foreign investment. especially
- 2:17with the rise of these new multinational companies.
- 2:20So now you have companies that can put certain
- 2:23parts of their operations in one country for
- 2:25low taxes, certain parts of their manufacturing
- 2:27in other countries for cheaper labor costs, and
- 2:30so that increases profitability. Now, the other
- 2:33thing you have as a source of capital is the
- 2:36expansion of the credit market, both through
- 2:39personal consumer cards as the minimum payments
- 2:43go down, And the balances go up. And then you
- 2:50also have the creation of the home equity market,
- 2:55where people can take out loans against the equity
- 2:59in their home. That's still a thing today. You
- 3:05also have the emergence of new technologies and
- 3:10new technology companies. And so the infrastructure
- 3:15of the information superhighway that you take
- 3:18for granted in those pocket devices you have
- 3:21today, the foundation of which was laid down
- 3:25when I sat in those chairs back in the 90s. So
- 3:32the new technologies. So, yes ma 'am. Is this
- 3:42all occurring during the Clinton administration?
- 3:44Yes. He was like, he was a good president who
- 3:48just made bad personal decisions. Let me ask
- 3:51you a question and we'll get to the bad personal
- 3:54decisions in a moment because I think you're
- 3:55jumping the gun. Of the three sources of economic
- 4:01prosperity, which one did he or did the administration
- 4:07have any play in? That's it. But what are the
- 4:13other two major sources of capital flowing into
- 4:17the economy? Credit cards. Credit cards and home
- 4:20equity that the federal government had very little
- 4:23to do with. The credit card expansion was an
- 4:26internal decision by the corporations. And so
- 4:30this part of the equation you can attribute to
- 4:34the Clinton administration except most of those
- 4:36free trade agreements had started their negotiation
- 4:38processes under Bush the Elder and he continued
- 4:42it. And so if I look at this period of deregulation
- 4:47Because if you think about it, this is a process
- 4:49of deregulation, yes? Right. Don't use party
- 4:53labels. The deregulation begins under Reagan,
- 4:57continues under Bush, the elder continues under
- 5:00Clinton. And then when do we start regulating
- 5:05ourselves more? Bush the younger you have the
- 5:09expansion of the military industrial complex
- 5:11after 9 -11 and under Barack Obama You have the
- 5:14expansion of the social welfare state through
- 5:16the Affordable Care Act through the expansion
- 5:17of the snap program and stuff like that So don't
- 5:19think about this in terms of party labels think
- 5:21about this in terms of a center seeking moment
- 5:24under FDR Eisenhower Kennedy Nixon and a center
- 5:29fleeing moment under Reagan Bush the elder Clinton
- 5:34And then we are in and you have grown up in the
- 5:39confines of a center -seeking moment, surveilled
- 5:44after 9 -11 and oppressed by taxes on existence.
- 5:51The question becomes, what does tomorrow hold
- 5:54because tomorrow belongs to thee? Will you forge
- 5:59more chains to bind us, to keep us safe? Will
- 6:06we break the chains? and be free. I leave that
- 6:11to you. Now, let's get back to the technology.
- 6:16What new technologies change the world, will
- 6:19create the world that you now live in? Go way
- 6:23back. Computers. Let's start with the basic idea.
- 6:28In the 1980s, you have the creation of the microprocessor,
- 6:31micro in Greek, small. All of a sudden, computers
- 6:35go from things that take up a room to things
- 6:37that you can put on a desk. And what do we call
- 6:41those? Computers. Well, if they're on the desk,
- 6:44we call them desktops. And if we can fold them
- 6:46and carry them with us, we call them laptops.
- 6:49Now, the earliest laptops and the earliest desktops
- 6:53go back to the 80s. But what happens in the 90s
- 6:55is they move from being a business appliance
- 6:59to being something in your home. So, new technologies.
- 7:07You have the computer. Now here's the thing.
- 7:08Most of you don't get what you originally used
- 7:14a computer for. Well, yes. But originally, what
- 7:20is the basic word of computer? Compute. Which
- 7:27implies what? Mathematics. The earliest functions
- 7:31of the computer were calculation and tabulation.
- 7:40Keeping tabulation on the number of customers,
- 7:44how much they bought, how much they sold, warehouses,
- 7:47inventories. Oh, and by the way, one of the earliest
- 7:50computers was the punch card reader brought to
- 7:52you by Hermann Hollerith that helped make the
- 7:55Holocaust possible. In other words, and one thing
- 7:59I've said, the Nazis did the Holocaust with all
- 8:02of the technological sophistication of punch
- 8:04cards. But anyway. So you have computers. Originally,
- 8:08the basic function of a computer in an office
- 8:11setting was twofold, maybe three. You had as
- 8:13a word processor, spreadsheet, and in a business
- 8:27setting, database. Now, spreadsheet and database,
- 8:31you're essentially manipulating what? Numbers,
- 8:35right? What aren't you using the computer for
- 8:39at this point? Personal information. If you wanted
- 8:44to send something to someone, you didn't send
- 8:47them an email. What did you send them? A letter
- 8:49that you typed using your word processor and
- 8:51before the word processor you used a what? Typewriter
- 8:55or by hand. All of you have had to turn in typed
- 9:02essays for English class, am I correct? And they
- 9:05wouldn't take it handwritten, would they? Mine
- 9:09was the last generation that you could turn in
- 9:12essays by hand. No, like even for our official
- 9:18prepared essays, we had to do it by hand. Now,
- 9:21when I was in high school, I did not take a keyboarding
- 9:27class. I took a typing class. Yes? Oh no, in
- 9:35high school I learned how to type classically.
- 9:40But no. Well, I mean, one of the things, my father,
- 9:43when he was working on his master's thesis, he
- 9:46hired someone to type for him. He would write
- 9:49the thing out longhand, and he would have someone
- 9:52else type it. Yes? Do you think that's whenever
- 9:55cursive started going downhill? That is part
- 10:01of the equation. Yes, because you write in cursive
- 10:07faster than you write in print, but not as fast
- 10:09as most people type. I think that was a contributing
- 10:12factor. Now, so word process spreadsheet database.
- 10:17Now, one of the things that I wanted to set off
- 10:19to the side is what is missing? So there's no
- 10:23email. What else? No music. No pictures. No music.
- 10:35And certainly not film. The graphics were primitive.
- 10:43It was mostly the use of text and numbers. And
- 10:48there's a reason why. The more primitive machines
- 10:53did not. Okay, so let me show you, let me tell
- 10:57you a little bit of a story, and this is sort
- 10:59of a historical back thing. How many of you have
- 11:01a Windows computer at home? And when you open
- 11:04up your hard drive, what is it called? The C
- 11:09drive, yes? So the C drive is the hard drive
- 11:15of the computer, and that's not why it's C. C
- 11:22is what letter in the alphabet? What comes before
- 11:25C? earliest computers had a B drive which was
- 11:30for the five inch floppy floppy disk and then
- 11:40what comes before B? You add the A drive for
- 11:46the three and a half inch floppy disk. We don't
- 11:51use floppy disks anymore do we? That's right
- 11:56because we still have hard drives on the computer.
- 11:58That is a vestige of those two earlier disk drives.
- 12:02Now here's the thing. There were some computers
- 12:04that had no internal storage. The only thing
- 12:07they had was the operating system. So if you
- 12:10wanted to run a program, you had to put the disk
- 12:13in the thing. Very similar to modern video games
- 12:17where it won't run without the disk. Now actually,
- 12:22in actuality, your game will run without the
- 12:24disk. They use the disk as a copyright control.
- 12:27Because what happens with modern games is it
- 12:29reads the discs, puts a fair amount of the content
- 12:32on the hard drive of the PlayStation or the Xbox.
- 12:35And they simply use the disc to make sure you
- 12:38actually bought it and didn't like pirate it.
- 12:42So let me show you what a floppy disc is. And
- 12:45I feel like something from the days of the Elder
- 12:49Gods. Those are floppy discs. Do you want to
- 12:55know how much information that floppy disc holds?
- 13:00One megabyte. A picture is worth a thousand words.
- 13:10Now, word files are kilobytes. You could have
- 13:13probably, oh, a hundred word files. Okay, maybe
- 13:18fifty. Fifty word files on one disk or one picture.
- 13:25Correct. One picture. You're making a presentation
- 13:30and you need to put a picture within your...
- 13:32You wouldn't use PowerPoint. You keep switching
- 13:34them out? No. No, like if you're like... If you're
- 13:37making a presentation, what you would do is,
- 13:41if you're doing a presentation, what you used
- 13:43to do, okay, remember science fair and those
- 13:46three -fold presentation things? You would put
- 13:51the picture on the poster board and it's part
- 13:54of the already incorporated thing. Now, If you
- 13:57were doing a slideshow, a slideshow is actually
- 13:59a separate piece of technology. A slideshow used
- 14:03photography and film. So here's the thing. Again,
- 14:09the things that were not on computers at this
- 14:12time in 1993, the idea of actually putting this
- 14:15media on computers was absurd. Because what did
- 14:19you do with a computer? You computed. Yes? This
- 14:27is much later. The internet. used to be nothing
- 14:33more than black and white and green ASCII text
- 14:38on monochromatic screens because it wasn't for
- 14:41entertainment and the internet is older than
- 14:44you remember. You remember the internet from
- 14:48your childhood. The internet was actually a network
- 14:51of systems shared between the military and the
- 14:57universities originally designed by the military
- 14:59to work with multiple and independent systems
- 15:01in the event of a Soviet attack. In the 1960s,
- 15:07the internet was born. In the 1970s, it was the
- 15:10military and the universities. In the 1980s,
- 15:13it was the military, universities, and corporations.
- 15:16In the 1990s, America Online puts America Online
- 15:23with little CDs and 56k modems. Actually, 28k
- 15:28modems. And that's where we get the phrase, you've
- 15:32got mail. So in the 1990s you have the dawn of
- 15:39the personal computer being able to access the
- 15:44internet. So now this puts email in the column
- 15:47of personal computers. But if you wanted pictures,
- 15:54if you wanted music, if you wanted music, you
- 15:56went to Best Buy, you bought a CD. If you wanted
- 16:00pictures, you would take pictures with a camera,
- 16:03you would take it to the photo lab, and in an
- 16:06hour they would give you the photos. If you wanted
- 16:09to send someone your photos, you put it in the
- 16:12envelope and you mailed it to their address.
- 16:15If you were giving a slide show, instead of taking
- 16:18pictures on film, you would take pictures on
- 16:20slide. Again, a similar development process.
- 16:22You would actually put it in a slide carousel
- 16:24that would broadcast the light and it would project
- 16:26onto the screen. It would make a click noise
- 16:28when you turned the remote that was hardwired
- 16:30to the machine. A time undreamed of, my parents
- 16:39still have their slide projector. There are still
- 16:42professors at university who still use the old
- 16:46slides. I feel like everything would be so much
- 16:49more expensive. No, it wasn't, because the systems
- 16:52were already in place. It was not as expensive
- 16:54as getting it, because again, there's no bandwidth
- 16:57to transmit the content. And so one of the things
- 16:59when you start looking at computers, especially
- 17:01in the 90s, is there's, you want to do, it's,
- 17:06a race between speed, storage, and bandwidth.
- 17:13So in the 1990s, people are accessing the internet
- 17:17by way of 56 or 28k modems. When I say 28k, that
- 17:21is 28 kilobits per second. I said kilo. Not mega,
- 17:26not giga, not pita. Kilo. In other words, you
- 17:38have people with money to burn. They're buying
- 17:40it on new technologies. You also have the increase
- 17:43of these technologies into office life. So for
- 17:45example, when I was in high school, we did not
- 17:48have a computer in every classroom. The teacher
- 17:54did not have a computer. The teacher took roll
- 17:56on a paper, Scantron style thing, put it on the
- 18:00door for the aides to pick up. If they wanted
- 18:04to send us a message, they came over the PA or
- 18:06they posted it on the bulletin board in the teacher
- 18:08work room or they put a memorandum in the teacher's
- 18:10box. Do you get the idea? Do you see how different
- 18:14the world is? Well, from A to B, a whole lot
- 18:17of money from these credit cards, from these
- 18:19tax cuts, from these home equity loans, from
- 18:21these business advances have people buying technology,
- 18:23which, again, causes the technology to increase.
- 18:26You also have people investing in new technology
- 18:29stocks, Netscape, AOL, Microsoft, Apple. All
- 18:32of these take off because there is this hopefulness
- 18:35in the inevitability of human progress. And why
- 18:38wouldn't there be hopefulness in the inevitability
- 18:41of human progress? We won the Cold War. The world
- 18:46was ours. You get the idea? So as the economy
- 18:53is booming, in 1996, Bill Clinton runs for re
- 18:58-election. So 1996, Bill Clinton runs for re
- 19:02-election. And as I say, when the economy's hopping,
- 19:05who gets the credit? The President. The President.
- 19:07And when the economy's down, who gets the blame?
- 19:10Even if, again, these are market forces relatively
- 19:13speaking beyond his control. So you have Clinton
- 19:16runs for re -election. Remember, Clinton is the
- 19:20first baby boomer president. His opponent from
- 19:22the Republican party is Bob Dole. Bob Dole, not
- 19:27as charismatic as Bill Clinton. Also, Bob Dole
- 19:29is a veteran of the Second World War. Bob Dole
- 19:32was 73. And Ross Perot was drafted to run again.
- 19:43Clinton wins in an electoral landslide, but what's
- 19:46interesting, and this is one of the things that
- 19:49our revisionist friends in 2016 ignored, Bill
- 19:56Clinton never had a majority. Never. Not even
- 20:02when he ran for re -election. 49, 41, and 8.
- 20:21No electors. These are all percentage votes.
- 20:24Now, the electoral sweep was, again, one -sided,
- 20:27but the popular vote is interesting. Bill Clinton
- 20:32never got a majority in the popular vote. Now,
- 20:39so he wins his re -election. Why? A couple of
- 20:41things that's worth noting. He wins his re -election.
- 20:46The Democrats do not gain the House or the Senate.
- 20:52Why? So you have the President who's a Democrat,
- 20:55you have the House that's Republican, and you
- 20:57have the Senate, which is Republican. Why did
- 21:00people vote in large numbers for Bill Clinton,
- 21:03but voted for people who antagonized him in Congress?
- 21:09Why? Had it occurred to anyone that most Americans
- 21:17are not ideologues? They do not vote for ideologies,
- 21:22they vote for men. And also, had it occurred
- 21:27to anyone that perhaps, and we have seen this,
- 21:30did Barack Obama have a Republican Congress?
- 21:34Yes. Did Reagan have a Democratic Congress? Yes.
- 21:38Had it occurred to anyone that the system of
- 21:41divided government, the system that was designed
- 21:43not to work, stayed divided by design, by the
- 21:49volition of the American people? And when your
- 21:53economy is rocking and rolling, why would you
- 21:56want a divided system of government? Or to make
- 22:05sure that the government does nothing to get
- 22:07in the way? You get the idea. Oh my god, a system
- 22:13of divided government where they divided the
- 22:16government into three parts and even among those
- 22:18three parts they whittled it down to twos and
- 22:19threes and committee processes that make legislation
- 22:22slow and painful. Oh my god, the government that
- 22:25was designed to fail doesn't work, but that's
- 22:29exactly when it's working because the government
- 22:31that works well works really well at screwing
- 22:34things up. Now, let's get to the bit. So, Here's
- 22:46the part that is perhaps the least understood.
- 22:51I'm actually going to do the foreign policy bits
- 22:53separate. I did his re -election. Now I'm going
- 22:56to do the impeachment. Then I'm going to go back
- 22:57to the foreign policy bits, because the foreign
- 22:59policy bits tie into the wider war on terror.
- 23:01So that's going to be a separate lecture. So
- 23:04let's get to the impeachment of Clinton. Now,
- 23:07we kind of make light about it, don't we? Everybody
- 23:13kind of chuckles when we talk about it. Why?
- 23:16Because it's funny. Because it's corporal. Because
- 23:20it's base. Because it's relatable. I mean, it
- 23:25almost sounds like the children on the playground.
- 23:28Bill and Monica up in a tree. K -I -S -S -I -N
- 23:31-G. No? First comes love, then comes marriage.
- 23:35No? No? Y 'all didn't do that nursery rhyme with
- 23:37children? Well, not that one, but different people,
- 23:40yes? We all did it. We all did it. That nursery
- 23:42rhyme is older than you, I, and our parents put
- 23:44together. What's actually kind of interesting
- 23:49is... Most treatments of the impeachment, most
- 23:54historical recollections of this are through
- 23:58the partisan lens. So let's go back to where
- 24:05it all began. In Arkansas. Originally, and this
- 24:11is the part that most people don't understand,
- 24:14how is it that a case of real estate fraud in
- 24:19Arkansas would result in the impeachment of a
- 24:23president for perjury and obstruction is not
- 24:26a straight line. So let me take you through the
- 24:31rabbit hole if you will. So in Arkansas there
- 24:38was a company called the Whitewater Development
- 24:40Company that had dealings with then Governor
- 24:49Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. Now
- 24:52what would be wrong with the governor of a state
- 24:56having financial transactions with a development
- 24:58company in his state. Bribery, favoritism, that
- 25:07sort of thing, yes? Well, the Whitewater Development
- 25:10Corporation goes bankrupt and its key managers
- 25:13were convicted of fraud. What would be the problem
- 25:18of possibly having the chief executive of these
- 25:21United States being implicated in a massive fraud
- 25:24scheme involving embellishment? the commissioning
- 25:34of an independent council to look into the Whitewater
- 25:46development company and the relationship of President
- 25:49Clinton to that company when he was governor
- 25:51of Arkansas. Make sense? Yep. So, independent
- 25:55prosecutor was originally looking at that. Everybody
- 25:58good so far? So, on the one hand, does it make
- 26:02sense that you should actually investigate if
- 26:04your president, you know, maybe was party to
- 26:07a massive fraud that cost a lot of people a lot
- 26:09of money. Makes sense. And even if he's innocent,
- 26:12what would the independent prosecutor then be
- 26:14able to do? Exonerate, right? Okay, we just want
- 26:19to know. That's always how the investigations
- 26:21go. Now, sidebar conversation, and we'll just
- 26:25call these peccadilloes. Then going back to the
- 26:31presidential campaign of 1992. 1992, Bill Clinton's
- 26:39running for the governorship. A woman by the
- 26:41name of Jennifer Flowers reveals that he and
- 26:44she were having an extramarital affair for some
- 26:47time. Paula Jones, a woman in Arkansas who accused
- 26:58the then governor of exposing himself to her,
- 27:02is seeking compensation in the form of a sexual
- 27:07harassment lawsuit. Now, is sexual harassment
- 27:11a criminal offense or is it a civil offense?
- 27:21If I'm suing somebody for it, what is it? If
- 27:24I want money, civil. So she is trying to, it's
- 27:29a civil suit. Now, if you're suing somebody for
- 27:33sexual harassment, what usually helps make your
- 27:37case? Proof, and in addition to proof, it also
- 27:42helps if you can establish a pattern. So if I
- 27:47look at the Paula Jones case, here I have Bill
- 27:49Clinton, the governor of Arkansas, using his
- 27:52position of authority to sexually exploit a woman
- 27:54such as the accusation. Yes? So if you're the
- 27:58lawyer for Paula Jones and you're trying to figure
- 28:01out if this man has used his position of authority
- 28:03to sexually exploit women, what do you do? You
- 28:07look for other women. Right? So the prosecutors
- 28:11start looking for other women and in connection
- 28:13to this sexual harassment lawsuit, Coming out
- 28:17of Arkansas, they find that Bill Clinton had
- 28:21had an affair with one Monica Lewinsky, a 21
- 28:25-year -old intern. I forget what state she's
- 28:28from. Bill Clinton was in his late 40s. She was
- 28:32more than half his age. So, you're the lawyer
- 28:37trying to get justice for your client, you ask
- 28:41the mistress, and you also ask the president.
- 28:44So, President Clinton was placed in a three -hour
- 28:48federal deposition. In that deposition, he denied
- 28:51that he had a sexual relationship with that woman.
- 28:58And so, in the end, the independent counsel now
- 29:02not only has to investigate this, but also investigating
- 29:06this because, what do you call it when you don't
- 29:08tell the truth in front of a judge? Perjury.
- 29:12Perjury is a federal crime if you are perjury
- 29:15is a crime if you are convicted of perjury You
- 29:18are a felon you lose the right to vote you lose
- 29:21the right to keep in bear arms so Two charges
- 29:29of note come up one is perjury The other is if
- 29:33I'm lying. Why did he lie? To impede what? this
- 29:40civil suit So he was tried for perjury and for
- 29:45obstruction of justice. So it's not that he was
- 29:54on trial for adultery. He was on trial for lying
- 29:58to a federal judge and for obstruction of justice
- 30:02of this woman who had been the victim of sexual
- 30:06exploitation. Now I know none of you remember
- 30:11this. None of you were even conceived yet in
- 30:151998 when the trial got started. And I know we've
- 30:21had sort of this pleasant revision of the history
- 30:24of this administration. So, now you have the
- 30:30charges. Now let's look at the math behind it.
- 30:34Because in the end, is impeachment and removal,
- 30:39is it an act of justice or is it an act of politics?
- 30:43Very much so. So we have talked about the impeachment
- 30:48process in the context of Richard Nixon and in
- 30:52the context of Andrew Johnson. Impeachment is
- 30:55handed down by which part of Congress? We got
- 31:01two chambers, House and Senate. Which one does
- 31:04it? Impeachment takes a House vote and it's only
- 31:10a simple majority. So it's a simple majority
- 31:13in the House. Who has a simple majority in the
- 31:17House? The Republicans. Do they get their simple
- 31:21majority vote? to indict. Yes. So, President
- 31:26Bill Clinton is the second president in American
- 31:29history to be impeached, the first in the 20th,
- 31:31the only in the 20th century. To convict a president
- 31:37is a trial before the Senate chaired by the Chief
- 31:41Justice of the Supreme Court. I remember watching
- 31:43it at Doby Mall at UT while eating a seven -layer
- 31:46burrito. I mean, not all of it, but I remember
- 31:47what I ate. It was a - To convict! What does
- 31:50it take? A two -thirds vote in the Senate. Now
- 31:58here's the question. The Republicans have a majority
- 32:01in the Senate. They don't have two -thirds. If
- 32:06they were going to get a conviction, they would
- 32:08need who to come along? Some Democrats. Some
- 32:14Democrats did not come along. And so Bill Clinton
- 32:18was impeached, but he was not removed. Now I'm
- 32:20going to leave you with this story. Who was Clinton's
- 32:29vice president? Al Gore. Al Gore, the senator
- 32:36from Tennessee who became the vice president
- 32:39under Clinton, ran with, was Clinton's running
- 32:43mate in 92, was Clinton's running mate in 96.
- 32:45Now you're Al Gore. Your president is on trial
- 32:56for perjury and obstruction of justice. And you
- 32:59are a popular man in the Democratic party. What
- 33:03could you do? Try to convince enough of the Democrats
- 33:10to vote with who? The Republicans. And you could
- 33:13be president. The man who would be king. Except
- 33:19after the impeachment, Al Gore stood outside
- 33:26the White House with the Senate Democrats who
- 33:29would be on the jury of, or actually no, he stood
- 33:34outside the White House with the Democrats who
- 33:38had voted against the impeachment and declared,
- 33:42history will remember Bill Clinton as one of
- 33:46America's great presidents. And in that moment,
- 33:50Al Gore gave up his chance to be president. Now
- 33:57Al Gore will run for the presidency in 2000 to
- 34:00George W. Bush. And he will lose by the narrowest
- 34:07of margins, having won the popular vote by nearly
- 34:10half a million, but losing the state of Florida
- 34:13in a very thin recount. But there are two interesting
- 34:17aspects about this man. One, he had his chance
- 34:21to be president. And two, he lost his home state.
- 34:27And after that loss in 2000, Al Gore and Bill
- 34:31Clinton never spoke again. I kind of wanted to
- 34:37set that up to lead us into the next part, which
- 34:40is the rise of Bush. Which of the younger? Which
- 34:46I don't have much time to get into. Are we out
- 34:47of here at 52 or 57 or? Oh, good. I got time
- 34:51for this. All right. Let me tell you the story.
- 34:59Let me tell you the story of, and this is my
- 35:04own construction, the story of George Oltor.
- 35:07What? All right. So, one of the things that's
- 35:10kind of funny, and I think I'm probably the only
- 35:13historian who's noticed this, George Bush the
- 35:18Younger, as often called George W. Bush, I use
- 35:24the term George Oltor. Oltor is an old Latin
- 35:27word. It means the Avenger. Because it's kind
- 35:31of an interesting story how George W. Bush kind
- 35:34of comes out of nowhere in the 1990s. becomes
- 35:39the governor of the Texan state and subsequently
- 35:41the president of the United States in less than
- 35:44two decades. So let's go back. 1992. Texas has
- 35:56a democratic governor, Ann Richards, who spoke
- 36:01very slightingly of President George Bush the
- 36:05Elder. Now what's interesting about So, 1992,
- 36:11Ann Richards addresses the DNC. This is her famous,
- 36:14poor George, he can't help it, he was born with
- 36:16a silver foot in his mouth. Ann Richards addresses
- 36:20the DNC. She was a rising star in the Democratic
- 36:23Party. By the way, when does Texas hold its gubernatorial
- 36:30elections? Not in 1994. 1992, or rather, 1992,
- 36:42Ann Richards addresses the DNC, speaking rather
- 36:45despairingly of George Bush the Elder. 1993,
- 36:48George W. Bush decides he will run for the governorship
- 36:51of the Texan state. 1994, George Bush the Younger
- 36:57defeats Ann Richards, ushering in the Republican
- 37:08majority of the Texan state in the House and
- 37:11in the Senate where it remains. Now, interestingly
- 37:13enough, George Bush the Younger, when he was
- 37:15governor of the Texan state, had to deal with
- 37:17a Democrat for the lieutenant governor. Bob Bullock.
- 37:22They named a museum after him. 1998. Is that
- 37:30a presidential election year? No. Bush runs for
- 37:36re -election as Texan governor. Bob Bullock does
- 37:45not run for re -election as lieutenant governor.
- 37:47In the Texan state, the governor and the lieutenant
- 37:51governor are not running mates. They are separate
- 37:53statewide offices. Rick Perry is elected lieutenant
- 38:01governor of the Texan state. George W. Bush runs
- 38:16for the nomination of the Republican Party. It
- 38:19is a bruising campaign once again. Bill Clinton
- 38:22has had his two terms and so anytime you're the
- 38:25opposition party after a two -term president,
- 38:27who could be president? Anyone. So it's a free
- 38:30-for -all. It's one of those weird races because
- 38:35it was him, it was Pat Buchanan, it was Pat Robertson
- 38:41of the 700 Club, I mean, it was an interesting
- 38:43motley crew. Now, what was interesting about
- 38:46it is this. Bush and Buchanan have a grueling
- 38:59presidential election fight where the heart and
- 39:03soul of the Republican party is aired out. Now,
- 39:05what's interesting about Buchanan is Buchanan
- 39:08thought NAFTA was a bad idea. So Bush sets himself
- 39:12up as a free trader versus Buchanan, who is more
- 39:15of an isolationist. Okay, and so when I look
- 39:19at 2016, I see Trump channeling Ross Perot and
- 39:22Pat Buchanan. It's really kind of interesting.
- 39:24But anyway, Bush versus Buchanan, Bush clenches
- 39:28the primary, and then of course November of 2000,
- 39:32you have Bush versus Gore. Now, this is where
- 39:37I get back to when Al Gore could have been president.
- 39:40The signature slogan of the Bush campaign back
- 39:44in 2000 was to restore honor and dignity to the
- 39:48White House. Was George W. Bush actually running
- 39:51against Al Gore with that phraseology? Who's
- 39:54he running against with that phraseology? Bill
- 39:57Clinton. And so with that phraseology, you go
- 40:00into the election, and I'm going to probably
- 40:02have to show you all the electoral map tomorrow.
- 40:05But you know what I meant. But yeah, it is a
- 40:12close electoral race and it hinged on the state
- 40:16of Florida. More to follow.