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Clinton Administration Second Term 1996-2000 · Saberian History Lectures

0:00
All right, so today we are going to talk about
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what I call the middle and late period of Clinton.
0:07
So again, as I said the other day... If I could
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break the Clinton administration up, I would
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break it up into two, really three periods. First
0:15
period was 1993 through 1995, where the Democrats
0:20
had control over the White House, the House,
0:22
and the Senate. After the election of 1994, the
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Republican Party would dominate the House and
0:28
the Senate for practically a generation. They
0:31
hold the House and the Senate from 1995 until
0:36
2007. Okay? So, we also left off with the massive
0:46
economic prosperity. Okay? So, let's talk about
0:51
the economic prosperity in the new economy. So,
0:55
the economic boom time of the 1990s was a period
0:58
of extraordinarily low unemployment, low inflation,
1:02
low interest rates. Things were good. Now, What
1:08
makes economic growth? We had talked about this
1:11
last class, but... New sources of capital. And
1:15
so to have that, you had two new sources of capital.
1:19
The first is your trade agreements. You had NAFTA.
1:23
You also had a general agreement on tariffs and
1:26
trades between the United States and multiple
1:29
nation states. And so the consensus had been...
1:33
Among the nations and in the United States, and
1:36
it was a bipartisan consensus, that free trade
1:39
is good. Now, a couple of things I kind of want
1:43
to bring up. In effect, a trade agreement is
1:49
a tax cut. Because you are not having taxes levied
1:53
on imports, nor are you having taxes levied on
1:56
exports. Now, also... These trade agreements
2:04
allow capital to flow into the United States,
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not just from among Americans, but also from
2:12
other countries. So it allows for a greater degree
2:14
of foreign investment. especially with the rise
2:17
of these new multinational companies. So now
2:20
you have companies that can put certain parts
2:23
of their operations in one country for low taxes,
2:25
certain parts of their manufacturing in other
2:27
countries for cheaper labor costs, and so that
2:30
increases profitability. Now, the other thing
2:33
you have as a source of capital is the expansion
2:36
of the credit market, both through personal consumer
2:39
cards as the minimum payments go down and the
2:44
balances go up and then you also have the creation
2:52
of the home equity market where people can take
2:57
out loans against the equity in their home. That's
3:00
still a thing today. You also have the emergence
3:07
of new technologies and new technology companies.
3:13
And so, the infrastructure of the information
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superhighway that you take for granted in those
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pocket devices you have today, the foundation
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of which was laid down when I sat in those chairs
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back in the 90s. So, the new technologies. So...
3:38
Yes, ma 'am. Is this all occurring during the
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Clinton administration? Yes. So he was a good
3:47
president who just made bad personal decisions?
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Let me ask you a question, and we'll get to the
3:53
bad personal decisions in a moment, because I
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think you're jumping the gun. Of the three sources
4:00
of economic prosperity, which one did he or did
4:06
the administration have any play in? That's it.
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But what are the other two major sources of capital
4:16
flowing into the economy? Credit cards. Credit
4:19
cards and home equity that the federal government
4:21
had very little to do with. The credit card expansion
4:25
was an internal decision by the corporations.
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And so this... Part of the equation you can attribute
4:33
to the Clinton administration, except most of
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those free trade agreements had started their
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negotiation processes under Bush the elder, and
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he continued it. And so if I look at this period
4:44
of deregulation, because if you think about it,
4:48
this is a process of deregulation, yes? Right.
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Don't use party labels. The deregulation begins
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under Reagan, continues under Bush the elder,
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continues under Clinton. And then when do we
5:04
start regulating ourselves more? Bush the younger,
5:09
you have the expansion of the military -industrial
5:11
complex after 9 -11, and under Barack Obama you
5:14
have the expansion of the social welfare state
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through the Affordable Care Act, through the
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expansion of the SNAP program and stuff like
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that. So don't think about this in terms of party
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labels. Think about this in terms of a center
5:23
-seeking moment under FDR, Eisenhower, Kennedy,
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Nixon, and a center -fleeing moment under Reagan,
5:31
Bush the elder. Clinton, and then we are in,
5:36
and you have grown up in the confines of a center
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-seeking moment, surveilled after 9 -11 and oppressed
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by taxes on existence. The question becomes,
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what does tomorrow hold because tomorrow belongs
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to thee? Will you forge more chains to bind us,
6:01
to keep us safe? Or will we break the chains
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and be free? I leave that to you. Now, let's
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get back to the technology. What new technologies
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change the world, create the world that you now
6:20
live in? Go way back. Computers. Computers. Let's
6:26
start with the basic idea. In the 1980s, you
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have the creation of the microprocessor. Micro
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in Greek. Small. All of a sudden, computers go
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from things that take up a room to things that
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you can put on a desk. And what do we call those?
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Computers. Well, if they're on the desk, we call
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them desktops. And if we can fold them and carry
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them with us, we call them laptops. Now, the
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earliest laptops and the earliest desktops go
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back to the 80s. But what happens in the 90s
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is they move from being a business appliance
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to being something in your home. So, new technologies.
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You have the computer. Now, here's the thing.
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Most of you don't get what you originally used
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a computer for. Well, yes. But originally, what
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is the basic word of computer? Compute. Which
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implies what? Mathematics. The earliest functions
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of the computer were calculation and tabulation.
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Keeping tabulation on the number of customers,
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how much they bought, how much they sold, warehouses,
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inventories. Oh, and by the way, one of the earliest
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computers was the punch card reader brought to
7:52
you by Herman Hollerith that helped make the
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Holocaust possible. In other words, and one thing
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I've said, the Nazis did the Holocaust with all
8:02
of the technological sophistication of punch
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cards. But anyway. So you have computers. Originally,
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the basic function of a computer in an office
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setting was twofold, maybe three. You had, as
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a word processor, spreadsheet. And in a business
8:26
setting, database. Now, spreadsheet and database,
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you're essentially manipulating what? Numbers,
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right? What aren't you using the computer for
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at this point? Personal information. If you wanted
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to send something to someone, you didn't send
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them an email. What did you send them? A letter
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that you typed using your word processor, and
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before the word processor, you used a what? Typewriter
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or by hand. All of you have had to turn in typed
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essays for English class. Am I correct? And they
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wouldn't take it handwritten, would they? Mine
9:08
was the last generation that you could turn in
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essays by hand. No, like even for our official
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prepared essays, we had to do it by hand. Now,
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when I was... In high school, I did not take
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a keyboarding class. I took a typing class. Yes?
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So in college, were you just kind of like...
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Oh no, in high school I learned how to type classically.
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But no, I mean, one of the things... My father,
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when he was working on his master's thesis, he
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hired someone to type for him. He would write
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the thing out longhand. And he would have someone
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else type it. Yes? Do you think that's whenever
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cursive started going downhill? That is part
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of the equation. Yes, because you write in cursive
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faster than you write in print, but not as fast
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as most people type. I think that was a contributing
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factor. Now, so, WordPress's spreadsheet database.
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Now, one of the things that I wanted to set off
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to the side is what is missing. So, there's no
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email. What else? No music, no pictures. No music.
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And certainly not film. The graphics were primitive.
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It was mostly the use of text and numbers. And
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there's a reason why. The more primitive machines
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did not... Okay, so let me show you... Let me
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tell you a little bit of a story, and this is
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sort of a historical back thing. How many of
11:01
you have a Windows computer at home? And when
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you open up your hard drive, what is it called?
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The C drive, yes? So the C drive is the hard
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drive of the computer, and that's not why it's
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C. C is what letter in the alphabet? Third. What
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comes before C? E. Earliest computers had a B
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drive, which was for the 5 -inch floppy. Floppy
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disk. And then? What comes before B? A. You add
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the A drive for the three and a half inch floppy
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disk. What are we at now? We don't use floppy
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disks anymore, do we? So we're still at C? That's
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right, because we still have hard drives on the
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computer. That is a vestige of those two earlier
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disk drives. Now here's the thing. There were
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some computers that had no internal storage.
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The only thing they had was the operating system.
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So if you wanted to run a program, you had to
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put the disk in the thing. Very similar to modern
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video games where it won't run without the disk.
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Now, actually... In actuality, your game will
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run without the disc. They use the disc as a
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copyright control. Because what happens with
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modern games is it reads the disc, puts a fair
12:31
amount of the content on the hard drive of the
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PlayStation or the Xbox. And they simply use
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the disc to make sure you actually bought it
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and didn't pirate it. So let me show you what
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a floppy disc is. And I feel like... Something
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from the days of the Elder Gods. Those are floppy
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disks. Do you want to know how much information
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that floppy disk holds? One megabyte. A picture
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is worth a thousand words. Now... Word files
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are kilobytes. You could have probably, oh, 100
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word files. Okay, maybe 50. 50 word files on
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one disk or one picture. Or one picture? Correct.
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One picture. Okay, but what if you're making
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a presentation and you need to put a picture
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within your... You wouldn't use PowerPoint. You
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keep switching them out? No. No, like if you're
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like... If you're making a presentation, what
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you would do is... If you're doing a presentation,
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what you used to do... Okay, remember science
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fair and those three -fold... presentation thing,
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you would put the picture on the poster board
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as part of the already incorporated thing. Now,
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if you were doing a slideshow, a slideshow is
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actually a separate piece of technology. A slideshow
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used photography and film. So, here's the thing.
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Again, the things that were not on computers
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at this time in 1993, the idea of actually putting
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this media on computers was absurd. Because what
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did you do with a computer? You computed! Yes?
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This is much later! The internet used to be nothing
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more than black and white and green ASCII text
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on monochromatic screens. Because it wasn't for
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entertainment. And the internet is older than
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you remember. You remember the Internet from
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your childhood. The Internet was actually a network
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of systems shared between the military and the
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universities, originally designed by the military
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to work with multiple and independent systems
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in the event of a Soviet attack. In the 1960s,
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the Internet was born. In the 1970s, it was the
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military and the universities. In the 1980s,
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it was the military, universities, and corporations.
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In the 1990s, America Online puts America online
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with little CDs and 56K modems. Actually, 28K
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modems. And that's where we get the phrase, you've
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got mail. So in the 1990s, you have the dawn
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of the personal computer being able to access
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the internet. So now this puts email in the column
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of personal computers. Now, but if you wanted
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pictures, if you wanted music, if you wanted
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music, you went to Best Buy, you bought a CD.
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If you wanted pictures, you would take pictures
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with a camera. you would take it to the photo
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lab and in an hour they would give you the photos.
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And if you wanted to send someone your photos,
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you put it in the envelope and you mailed it
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to their address. And if you were giving a slide
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show, instead of taking pictures on film, you
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would take pictures on slide. And again, a similar
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development process. You would actually put it
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in a slide carousel that would broadcast the
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light and it would project onto the screen. It
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would make a click noise when you turned the
16:29
remote that was hardwired to the machine. It
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is a time undreamed of. My parents still have
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their slide projector. There are still professors
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at university who still use the old slides. I
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feel like everything would be so much more expensive.
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No, it wasn't, because the systems were already
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in place. It was not as expensive as getting
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it, because again, there's no bandwidth to transmit
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the content. And so one of the things when you
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start looking at computers, especially in the
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90s, is there's, you want to do, it's a race
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between speed, storage, and bandwidth. So in
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the 1990s, people are accessing the internet
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by way of 56 or 28k modems. When I say 28k, that
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is 28 kilobits per second. I said kilo. Not mega,
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not giga, not pita. Kilo. Verstanden? Okay. But...
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The buying of, in other words, you have people
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with money to burn. They're buying it on new
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technologies. You also have the increase of these
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technologies into office life. So, for example,
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when I was in high school, we did not have a
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computer in every classroom. The teacher did
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not have a computer. The teacher took roll on
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a paper Scantron -style thing, put it on the
18:00
door for the aides to pick up. If they wanted
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to send us a message, they came over to the PA
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or they posted it on the bulletin board in the
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teacher work room or they put a memorandum in
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the teacher's box. Do you get the idea? Do you
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see how different the world is? Well, from A
18:15
to B, a whole lot of money from these credit
18:18
cards, from these tax cuts, from these home equity
18:20
loans, from these business advances have people
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buying technology, which, again, causes the technology
18:25
to increase. You also have people investing in
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new technology stocks. Netscape, AOL, Microsoft,
18:31
Apple. All of these take off because there is
18:34
this hopefulness in the inevitability of human
18:36
progress. And why wouldn't there be hopefulness
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in the inevitability of human progress? We won
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the Cold War. The world was ours. You get the
18:50
idea. So as the economy is booming, in 1996,
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Bill Clinton runs for re -election. So 1996,
19:00
Bill Clinton runs for re -election. And as I
19:03
say, when the economy is hopping, who gets the
19:05
credit? The president. And when the economy is
19:08
down, who gets the blame? The president. Even
19:11
if, again, these are market forces relatively
19:13
speaking beyond his control. So you have Clinton,
19:16
runs for re -election. Remember, Clinton is the
19:19
first baby boomer president. His opponent from
19:21
the Republican Party is Bob Dole. Bob Dole, not
19:27
as charismatic as Bill Clinton. Also, Bob Dole
19:29
is a veteran of the Second World War. Bob Dole
19:31
was 73. And Ross Perot was drafted to run again.
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Now, Clinton wins in an electoral landslide,
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but what's interesting, and this is one of the
19:48
things that our revisionist friends in 2016 ignored,
19:54
Bill Clinton never had a majority. Never. Not
20:01
even when he ran for re -election. Oh, it was
20:10
49, 41, and 8. No electors. These are all percentage
20:23
votes. Now, the electoral sweep was, again, one
20:26
-sided, but the popular vote is interesting.
20:31
Bill Clinton never got a majority in the popular
20:34
vote. Now, So he wins his re -election. Why?
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A couple of things that's worth noting. He wins
20:44
his re -election. The Democrats do not gain the
20:50
House or the Senate. Why? So you have the President,
20:54
who's a Democrat, you have the House, that's
20:56
Republican, and you have the Senate, which is
20:58
Republican. Why did people vote? in large numbers,
21:02
for Bill Clinton, but voted for people who antagonized
21:06
him in Congress. Why? Had it occurred to anyone
21:15
that most Americans are not ideologues, they
21:20
do not vote for ideologies, they vote for men.
21:24
And also, had it occurred to anyone that perhaps,
21:28
and we have seen this, Did Barack Obama have
21:31
a Republican Congress? Yes. Did Reagan have a
21:36
Democratic Congress? Yes. Had it occurred to
21:39
anyone that the system of divided government,
21:41
the system that was designed not to work, stayed
21:46
divided by design, by the volition of the American
21:50
people? And when your economy is rocking and
21:54
rolling, why would you want a divided system
21:57
of government? Or to make sure that the government
22:05
does nothing to get in the way. You get the idea.
22:12
Oh my god, a system of divided government where
22:15
they divided the government into three parts
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and even among those three parts they whittled
22:18
it down to twos and threes and committee processes
22:20
that make legislation slow and painful. Oh my
22:24
god, the government that was designed to fail
22:26
doesn't work. But that's exactly when it's working
22:30
because the government that works well works
22:32
really well at screwing things up. No? Ta -da!
22:40
Let's get to the bit. So, here's the part that
22:47
is perhaps the least understood. I'm actually
22:51
going to do the foreign policy bit separate.
22:54
I did his re -election, now I'm going to do the
22:56
impeachment, then I'm going to go back to the
22:57
foreign policy bits, because the foreign policy
22:59
bits tie into the wider war on terror, so that's
23:01
going to be a separate lecture. So, let's get
23:04
to the impeachment of Clinton. Now, we kind of
23:08
make light about it. Don't we? Everybody kind
23:13
of chuckles when we talk about it. Why? Because
23:17
it's funny. Because it's corporal. Because it's
23:20
base. Because it's relatable. I mean, it almost
23:25
sounds like the children on the playground, Bill
23:28
and Monica up in a tree, K -I -S -S -I -N -G.
23:31
No? First comes love, then comes marriage. No?
23:35
No? Y 'all didn't do that nursery rhyme as children?
23:38
Well, not that one, but different people. Yes?
23:40
We all did it. We all did it. That nursery rhyme
23:42
is older than you, I, and our parents put together.
23:46
But what's actually kind of interesting is most
23:51
treatments of the impeachment, most historical
23:54
recollections of this are through the partisan
23:59
lens. So let's go back to where it all began.
24:06
In Arkansas. Because originally, and this is
24:11
the part that most people don't understand, how
24:14
is it that a case of real estate fraud in Arkansas
24:19
would result in the impeachment of a president
24:23
for perjury and obstruction is not a straight
24:27
line. So let me take you through the... Rabbit
24:32
hole, if you will. So, in Arkansas, there was
24:38
a company called the Whitewater Development Company
24:40
that had dealings with then -Governor Clinton
24:49
when he was governor of Arkansas. Now, what would
24:52
be wrong with the governor of a state having
24:56
financial transactions with a development company
24:59
in his state? Bribery, favoritism, that sort
25:07
of thing, yes? Well, the Whitewater Development
25:09
Corporation goes bankrupt and its key managers
25:13
were convicted of fraud. What would be the problem
25:18
of possibly having the chief executive of these
25:21
United States being implicated in a massive fraud
25:24
scheme involving embellishment? A little bit.
25:29
Now, so... you had the commissioning of an independent
25:35
council to look into the Whitewater development
25:46
company and the relationship of President Clinton
25:49
to that company when he was governor of Arkansas.
25:52
Make sense? Okay. So, independent prosecutor
25:55
was originally looking at that. Everybody good
25:58
so far? So, on the one hand, does it make sense
26:02
that you should actually investigate if your
26:04
president, you know, maybe was party to a massive
26:07
fraud that cost a lot of people a lot of money?
26:09
Makes sense. And even if he's innocent, what
26:12
would the independent prosecutor then be able
26:14
to do? Exonerate, right? Okay, we just want to
26:19
know. That's always how the investigations go.
26:21
Now, sidebar conversation, and we'll just call
26:25
these peccadillos. Even going back to the presidential
26:32
campaign of 1992. 1992, Bill Clinton's running
26:39
for the governorship. A woman by the name of
26:41
Jennifer Flowers reveals that he and she were
26:44
having an extramarital affair for some time.
26:48
Paula Jones. A woman in Arkansas who accused
26:58
the then governor of exposing himself to her
27:01
is seeking compensation in the form of a sexual
27:06
harassment lawsuit. Now, is sexual harassment
27:10
a criminal offense or is it a civil offense?
27:19
Criminal. If I'm suing somebody for it, what
27:23
is it? If I want money, civil. So she is trying
27:28
to, it's a civil suit. Now, if you're suing somebody
27:33
for sexual harassment, what usually helps make
27:36
your case? Proof. And in addition to proof, it
27:41
also helps if you can establish a pattern. So,
27:46
if I look at the Paula Jones case, here I have
27:49
Bill Clinton, the governor of Arkansas, using
27:51
his position of authority to sexually exploit
27:54
a woman, such as the accusation. Yes? So, if
27:58
you're the lawyer for Paula Jones, and you're
28:00
trying to figure out if this man has used his
28:02
position of authority to sexually exploit women,
28:05
what do you do? You look for other women. Right?
28:10
So the prosecutors start looking for other women,
28:12
and in connection to this sexual harassment lawsuit
28:15
coming out of Arkansas, they find that Bill Clinton
28:20
had had an affair with one Monica Lewinsky, a
28:25
21 -year -old intern. I forget what state she's
28:28
from. Bill Clinton was in his late 40s. She was
28:31
more than half his age. So, you're the lawyer
28:36
trying to get justice for your client. you ask
28:40
the mistress, and you also ask the president.
28:44
So, President Clinton was placed in a three -hour
28:47
federal deposition. In that deposition, he denied
28:51
the relationship. He denied that he had a sexual
28:56
relationship with that woman. And so, in the
28:59
end, the independent counsel now not only has
29:02
to investigate this, but also investigating this
29:06
because, what do you call it when you don't tell
29:08
the truth in front of a judge? Perjury. Perjury
29:12
is a federal crime. Perjury is a crime. If you
29:16
are convicted of perjury, you are a felon. You
29:19
lose the right to vote. You lose the right to
29:21
keep and bear arms. So, two charges of note come
29:29
up. One is perjury. The other is, why did he
29:35
lie? To impede what? This civil suit. So he was
29:43
tried for perjury and for obstruction of justice.
29:50
So it's not, that he was on trial for adultery.
29:55
He was on trial for lying to a federal judge
29:59
and for obstruction of justice of this woman
30:03
who had been the victim of sexual exploitation.
30:09
Now, I know none of you remember this. None of
30:12
you were even conceived yet. In 1998, when the
30:16
trial got started. And I know we've had sort
30:21
of this pleasant revision of the history of this
30:24
administration. So, now you have the charges.
30:30
Now let's look at the math behind it. Because
30:34
in the end, is impeachment and removal, is it
30:39
an act of justice or is it an act of politics?
30:43
Very much so. So we have talked about... the
30:47
impeachment process in the context of Richard
30:51
Nixon and in the context of Andrew Johnson. Impeachment
30:54
is handed down by which part of Congress? We
31:01
got two chambers, House and Senate. Which one
31:04
does it? House. Impeachment takes a House vote
31:09
and it's only a simple majority. So it's a simple
31:13
majority in the House. Who has a simple majority
31:16
in the House? The Republicans. Do they get their
31:21
simple majority vote? To indict. Yes. So, President
31:26
Bill Clinton is the second president in American
31:28
history to be impeached, the only in the 20th
31:32
century. To convict a president is a trial before
31:38
the Senate chaired by the Chief Justice of the
31:41
Supreme Court. I remember watching it at Dobie
31:44
Mall at UT while eating a seven -layer burrito.
31:46
I mean, not all of it, but I remember what I
31:48
ate. To convict, what does it take? A two -thirds
31:53
vote in the Senate. Now, here's the question.
31:59
The Republicans have a majority in the Senate.
32:02
They don't have two -thirds. If they were going
32:06
to get a conviction, they would need who to come
32:10
along. Some Democrats. Some Democrats did not
32:16
come along. And so Bill Clinton was impeached,
32:19
but he was not removed. Now I'm going to leave
32:21
you with this story. Who was Clinton's vice president?
32:32
Al Gore. Al Gore, the senator from Tennessee
32:36
who became the vice president under Clinton.
32:41
Was Clinton's running mate in 92? Was Clinton's
32:44
running mate in 96? Now, you're Al Gore. Your
32:54
president is on trial for perjury and obstruction
32:57
of justice. And you are a popular man in the
33:01
Democratic Party. What could you do? Try to convince
33:07
enough of the Democrats to vote with who? The
33:11
Republicans. And you could be president. The
33:15
man who would be king. Except, after the impeachment...
33:23
Al Gore stood outside the White House with the
33:28
Senate Democrats who would be on the jury of
33:31
or actually no, he stood outside the White House
33:36
with the Democrats who had voted against the
33:39
impeachment and declared history will remember
33:43
Bill Clinton as one of America's great presidents.
33:47
And in that moment, Al Gore gave up His chance
33:53
to be president. Now, Al Gore will run for the
33:58
presidency in 2000 to George W. Bush. And he
34:04
will lose by the narrowest of margins, having
34:07
won the popular vote by nearly half a million,
34:11
but losing the state of Florida in a very thin
34:14
recount. But there are two interesting aspects
34:17
about this man. One, he had his chance to be
34:21
president. And two, he lost his home state. And
34:27
after that loss in 2000, Al Gore and Bill Clinton
34:32
never spoke again. I kind of wanted to set that
34:37
up to lead us into the next part, which is the
34:41
rise of Bush. Bush the Younger, which I don't
34:46
have much time to get into. Are we out of here
34:47
at 52 or 57? Oh, good. I got time for this. All
34:53
right. Let me tell you the story. Let me tell
35:00
you the story of... And this is my own construction.
35:04
The story of George Oltor. All right. So, one
35:09
of the things that's kind of funny, and I think
35:12
I'm probably the only historian who's noticed
35:16
this. George Bush the Younger, as often called
35:20
George W. Bush, I use the term George Ultor.
35:25
Ultor is an old Latin word. It means the Avenger.
35:30
Because it's kind of an interesting story how
35:32
George W. Bush kind of comes out of nowhere in
35:36
the 1990s. becomes the governor of the Texan
35:40
state and subsequently the president of the United
35:42
States in less than two decades. So, let's go
35:48
back. 1992. Texas has a Democratic governor,
35:58
Ann Richards, who spoke very slightingly of President
36:03
George Bush the Elder. Now, what's interesting
36:07
about... So, 1992, Ann Richards addresses the
36:12
DNC. This is her famous, poor George, he can't
36:15
help it, he was born with a silver foot in his
36:17
mouth. Ann Richards addresses the DNC. She was
36:20
a rising star in the Democratic Party. By the
36:27
way, when does Texas hold its gubernatorial elections?
36:34
Not in 1994. 1992, or rather 1992, Ann Richards
36:42
addresses the DNC, speaking rather despairingly
36:45
of George Bush the Elder. 1993, George W. Bush
36:49
decides he will run for the governorship of the
36:51
Texan state. 1994, George Bush the Younger defeats
36:57
Ann Richards. ushering in the Republican majority
37:08
of the Texan state in the House and in the Senate
37:11
where it remains. Now, interestingly enough,
37:13
George Bush, the younger, when he was governor
37:15
of the Texan state, had to deal with a Democrat
37:18
for the lieutenant governor, Bob Bullock. They
37:22
named a museum after him. 1998. Is that a presidential
37:30
election year? No. Bush runs for re -election
37:36
as Texan governor. Bob Bullock does not run for
37:46
re -election as lieutenant governor. In the Texan
37:48
state, the governor and the lieutenant governor
37:51
are not running mates. They are separate statewide
37:53
offices. Rick Perry is elected lieutenant governor
38:01
of the Texan state. 2000. George W. Bush runs
38:15
for the nomination of the Republican Party. It
38:19
is a bruising campaign. Once again, Bill Clinton
38:22
has had his two terms, and so anytime you're
38:25
the opposition party after a two -term president,
38:27
who could be president? Anyone. So it's a free
38:30
-for -all. It was one of those weird races because
38:35
it was him, it was Pat Buchanan, it was... Pat
38:40
Robertson of the 700 Club. I mean, it was an
38:43
interesting motley crew. Now, what was interesting
38:45
about it is this. Bush and Buchanan have a grueling
38:57
presidential election fight. where the heart
39:03
and soul of the Republican Party is aired out.
39:05
Now, what's interesting about Buchanan is Buchanan
39:07
thought NAFTA was a bad idea. So Bush sets himself
39:12
up as a free trader versus Buchanan, who is more
39:15
of an isolationist. And so when I look at 2016,
39:20
I see Trump channeling Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan.
39:23
It's really kind of interesting. But anyway,
39:24
Bush versus Buchanan. Bush clinches the primary.
39:28
And then, of course, November of 2000, You have
39:32
Bush versus Gore. Now, this is where I get back
39:37
to when Al Gore could have been president. The
39:40
signature slogan of the Bush campaign back in
39:44
2000 was to restore honor and dignity to the
39:48
White House. Was George W. Bush actually running
39:51
against Al Gore with that phraseology? Who's
39:54
he running against with that phraseology? Bill
39:57
Clinton. And so with that phraseology, you go
40:00
into the election, and I'm going to probably
40:02
have to show you all the electoral map tomorrow.
40:05
But you know what I meant. Anyway, but yeah,
40:11
it is a close electoral race, and it hinged on
40:15
the state of Florida. More to follow.