The first two years of Bill Clinton's presidency were polarizing ones marred by events such as the ill-starred US military intervention in Somalia, the Waco siege, and a failed attempt to create nationalized health care. The '94 midterms proved a far more important event than the '96 presidential election as the Republican Party regained control of the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years and ended six decades of Democrat dominance of Congress. The new 103rd Congress, led by House Speaker Newt Gingrich, fell into confrontation with Clinton and the battle led to a government shutdown in late 1995.US Army general and Gulf War hero Colin Powell was widely held up as a potential Republican front-runner for '96 but he declined to run due to concerns over his wife's health. Other candidates included conservative columnist Pat Buchanan, Kansas Senator Bob Dole, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Spector, magazine publisher Steve Forbes, Indiana Senator Dick Lugar, and California governor Pete Wilson.Although Bob Dole had the most money and party backing behind him, Forbes and Buchanan managed early leads in primaries which caused established Republicans to panic and start a "Support Dole" initiative. He cleaned up the remaining primaries and by June his nomination was secured. Dole was nominated at the RNC in San Diego August 12-15 and chose as his running mate former football star and HUD Secretary Jack Kemp. Bill Clinton meanwhile was renominated at the Democrat convention in Chicago August 26-29 with only token opposition.
Ross Perot mounted another presidential campaign but he attracted far less attention this time around and was not invited to the presidential debates.At 73, Dole was the oldest man yet to run for a first term as president on a major party ticket and his age and fitness were a question mark. Not helping his situation were his frequent allusions to the Great Depression and World War II, and his talk of "being a bridge to the past" before the social upheavals of the 1960s. Other events such as his falling off a stage at a campaign event and referring to the Los Angeles Dodgers as the Brooklyn Dodgers further added to the notion of him being old and out of touch. In order to prove his health and fitness, Dole allowed himself to be photographed running on a treadmill and released his medical records to the public (Clinton for comparison did not release his).The Clinton campaign for their part avoided criticizing Dole directly or bringing up his age, merely calling his ideas "old-fashioned." Clinton really ran against New Gingrich and Congressional Republicans rather than Dole, charging them with plotting to give the wealthy tax cuts and remove social services needed by the poor and disadvantaged.This was the first presidential election in which both candidates operated official websites.
The '96 campaign was called the least eventful presidential election in 40 years. Even the two presidential debates between Clinton and Dole on October 6 and 16 failed to produce any memorable moments or soundbites. Perot was not invited to the debates this time around despite his protests.On Election Day November 5, Clinton won reelection easily with 379 electoral votes to Dole's 159 and 49% of the popular vote to 40%. Perot won 8% of the vote. The electoral map did not change significantly from 1992; Georgia, Colorado, and Montana flipped Republican while Arizona flipped Democrat thus Clinton got one less state than four years earlier. Voter turnout was only 49%, the smallest since 1924. This remains the last presidential election to date where Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia were carried by the Democrat candidate.Despite the '94 midterms, Clinton remained personally popular and a strong economy combined with questions over Dole's age and ability to handle the presidency made his reelection an easy one. Voter surveys found that Clinton carried both genders and all age groups as well as most income brackets. Broken down into racial categories, Dole did best with white and Asian voters while Clinton carried the black and Hispanic vote handily. Overall Dole's voter base was older, wealthier, whiter, and more Protestant.
>>18412557One hell of a meaningless, bland election. There wasn't really a lot going on in this or the subsequent 2000 election.
>>18412557 >Voter turnout was only 49%, the smallest since 19241924 elections were also extremely uneventful. That means America will get peak of another 'live and let live ' period in 2070
I wouldn’t say it didn’t matter period, but Clinton took the best Republican ideas in 95-96 and to be honest didn’t do much in his second term. A president who doesn’t do much sounds really really great actually.
>>18412557I was in Catholic school when this election happened. The only thing anyone voted on was social issues. Mostly abortion. It's worth noting that in the previous election both Bush and Clinton were pro choice. This election was a step in the direction where we find ourselves today.
>>18412623Bush was pro-choice early in his career but definitely not by the time he was president.
Bob Dole just likes to hear Bob Dole talking about Bob Dole. Bob Dole!
>>18412557that is a freaky-looking electoral map especially the column of blue from Minnesota down to Louisiana
>>18412651College educated suburbanites especially in Colorado and Virginia were heavily Republican in the 80s-90s even into Obama's first term while some traditional Southern Democrats still existed.
Leftists frequently wonder why they can't have a viable candidate, and usually cook up conspiracy theories like the All Powerful Blood Hydra that is the DNC.As it were the Dems post LBJ frequently ran candidates that were well to the left of the general population and got butchered on the national level. Clinton presented himself as a moderate and finally broke through. Yet in his first two years the Democrats went too far with trying to create socialist health care and abolishing the 2nd Amendment and got a massive rebuff in 94.
>>18412658change is scary to most and FPTP voting systems make it hard to escape timid centrist policies. Medicare consistently outperforms private insurers but most people are reluctant to give theirs up even when they don't like it.
>>18412651Never think anything is permanent. There was a time in living memory that the idea of Arkansas voting Republican or Vermont voting Democrat was ludicrous.
>>18412557last time West Virginia voted Democrat. the coal industry declined and they started voting mainly on social issues and the 2nd Amendment.
>>18412675I'm aware. Organized labor declined when they abandoned the Democrat Party in favor of hateful and racist ideologies, thus ensuring their own marginalization.
>>18412676come on now, organized labor was just about completely dead by the 90s, long after Democrats embraced social justice and enviroleninist policies that helped kill the coal industry and whatnot.
>>18412679What is it that you think the Democrat Party, or any political party, is? It is a reflection of what its members want. White union members -- the majority of just about any blue collar union -- got swayed by culture wars stuff ie. never mind fighting for better wages and whatnot, what matters most is keeping faggots and POCs out of my kid's school. Had they stuck with the Democrats, they would have had more influence
>>18412675WV is an almost overwhelmingly red state now, even Missouri and Arkansas weren't as red in the last few presidential elections.
>>18412688it has no major cities and the Democrats completely dropped the rural vote after the 90s
The 90s still had a decent amount of mostly older Southern whites and GI generation retired union workers who were socially conservative but still committed Democrats; they had mostly died off by the 2010s.
>>18412557Clinton's 2nd term was the only time a Democrat president didn't have his own party in control of either house his entire term.
>>18412563Dole was a WW2 hero and certified badass, had he run for president in 1976 or something. Realistically 1988 was his last chance.
>>18412566>On Election Day November 5, Clinton won reelection easily with 379 electoral votes to Dole's 159 and 49% of the popular vote to 40%Elections in Third World countries often have 90% turnout even when people literally get shot at while standing in line to vote. There's no excuse for this.
>>18412563things weren't as polarized before cable news or Twitter. there was nobody going "if you make the wrong choice in November, terrorists will attack this puppy."
>>18412705I agree no SM yet but Rush Limbaugh was obviously a big deal and he started the trend of calling every Democrat candidate a communist.
America was boring back then. As it should be.
>>18412557Clinton's first two years under the 103rd Congress were actually very far left.>appointed Ruth Bader Ginsberg to the Supreme Court>Hillarycare>attempted gun grabbing>Maya Angelou poetry reading at his inauguration>promotion of feminazi ideologies>affirmative action black woman surgeon general who said public schools should teach kids how to masturbateThe 94 elections didn't happen for no reason.
>>18412563they said Dole was old when he'd be young in light of more recent presidential candidates. that aside he looked pretty good for his age all things considered.
Dole was a good guy who just ran a little too late, his time was in the 70s or 80s.
>>18412557of every presidential election since 1960 this one i think has the least amount written on it
It's really odd but Clinton's campaign team said the guy they were most afraid of was Lamar Alexander (really?) I don't know why that is but some of them would later claim in interviews that they were sure Alexander would bury Clinton in a Reagan-style landslide if he ran. The one other person they were afraid of was Colin Powell and he decided not to run.
>>18412566>The electoral map did not change significantly from 1992; Georgia, Colorado, and Montana flipped Republican while Arizona flipped Democrat thus Clinton got one less state than four years earlier.does anyone know why these particular states flipped from 92?
>>18412762Colorado and Montana had had their votes in 92 split by Perot and Dole as a Kansan probably connected more with those voters than did Bush. Georgia was moving more Republican as Dixiecrats died off. Arizona and Florida favored Clinton's centrist politics and Southern background.
>>18412763Three reliable red states and GA as you said was moving more Republican. Florida was also set to become a swing state from this election through 2012.
>>18412755Bob Woodward interviewed Powell and found he just didn't want the responsibility of the presidency or to put forward the energy of an election campaign.
>>18412781Powell had been sought by both parties as a presidential candidate since the Gulf War, he wasn't strictly aligned with either--he served in Bush's administration but then endorsed Obama both times and denounced Trump.
>>18412799mf-er was too liberal on social issues to be acceptable to the Republican base. the last time a pro-choice Republican could have run for president was in the 70s.
Powell was not a good guy nor did he deserve to be president.>assists in covering up the My Lai Massacre>assists in running drugs in Central America and Afghanistan in the 80s>Iraq WMD hoax
>>18412557it really is crazy to see given modern Colorado's instincts and reputation how it was a reliably Republican state at the presidential level throughout most of the 20th century.before 2008 only 3 Democrats had won the state after 1936, Truman in 48, LBJ in 64, and Clinton in 92. granted 96 was very close with only a 20k vote margin
>>18412763Middle class college educated whites were mostly Republican from the 50s all the way to the 2000s and that had a lot to do with the Cold War, because a lot of the big jobs were tied into the MIC which was a key Republican bloc. Clinton was however the first Democrat to widely make a play for this demographic.
>>18412557>Forbes and Buchanan managed early leads in primaries which caused established Republicans to panic and start a "Support Dole" initiativei don't blame them. if you actually knew what Buchanan stood for it's quite frightening.
>>18412668many southern states only finally got a Republican Party trifecta in state governance post Reconstruction in the 2010sit's honestly astonishing to see just how long ancestral democrats managed to keep chugging along in the south given how the national party changed
I think this had the worst pool of Republican candidates of any modern election next to 2012.>Dole15 years past his sell date>Lugar/Dornan/KeyesLiterally who?>Buchanan>>>/pol/>ForbesThe ultimate rich, out of touch yuppie>AlexanderZzzzz...
Dole was capable of being a witty, funny guy but his campaign team told him to be as boring and inoffensive as possible.
>>18412828>Dole was capable of being a witty, funny guy but his campaign team told him to be as boring and inoffensive as possible.the whole issue was the GOP were attacking Clinton for being this kind of living cartoon character and that a president shouldn't act that way, so they wanted Dole to be super uptight.
It was crazy how much media alluded to Colin Powellhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22SQnsmVOyI
>>1841282692 was worse.>Buchanan and fucking David Duke were running for president
>>18412836Oh and in fact Duke would have won the governorship of Louisiana except that a massive "Stop Duke" effort was put in with outside money and even President Bush endorsing Edwin Edwards.
Arlen Spector and Bob Dole were both good.
>>18412842>Arlen Spector>goodI live in his state, no he was most certainly not that.
>>18412566It feels like allowing Perot in the 92 debates was to HW Bush's disadvantage, while excluding him from the debates in 96 was to Clintons advantage.The cabal of media tycoons acted as kingmakers in both elections
idk man, Dole's conduct in the 76 and 88 elections was pretty bad
>>18412836Quick reminder that Buchanan:>said Hitler dindonuffin>said integration was doomed to fail as blacks were genetically inferior>was friends with David Duke>said that the Jewish money power controls American politics
>>18412869Correct on all fronts, the more time passes the more correct this gets.
>>18412679Economics and changing technologies was always going to kill off coal before environmentalists could. Which is why environmentalists were pleading with them to rip the bandaid off rather than cling to an obsolete existence. Well now they get to continue down the bleak path with the added bonus of a Labor Department that doesn't give a shit about black lung protections.
>>18412647it seems that Dole was just only popular in his backyard and that was all
Dole didn't have a whole lot of differences with Clinton aside from some trivial disagreements on spending and social issues; the latter said that if he did lose he wouldn't be mad as he thought the country would be in good hands with Dole in office.
18412904typical effete college liberal who goes "derf why don't coal miners lrn2 code instead?"
>>18412737I remember my dad pushing Limbaugh on me around that time. I didn't mind because I hate feminists
>>18412990The jobs of this century are in health care, finance, and IT not grug caveman industrial and mining like it's 1850.
I would like to see these kind of threads for each midterms, a lot of them are underrated in terms of impact and influence
>>18413059there were some important midterms like 1994 but a lot of them like 1962, 1982, and 1990 were just holding the line and didn't change much of anything
>>18412557>US Army general and Gulf War hero Colin Powell was widely held up as a potential Republican front-runner for '96 but he declined to run due to concerns over his wife's health.Could he have won?
>>18413088no. already dealt with in this thread. for one thing he'd be too socially liberal to cut it as a Republican.
>>184130861946 was a interesting one
>>18412557I remember these election threads from some years ago. You reposting them, anon?
it probably would have been better for americas social cohesion if the first black president was a republican, also obama could not run on being historical in 2008
>>18412675>*material conditions affect people's votes*>"hurrrr they vote because of le culture war now"You just don't like that the material conditions caused them to swing against your team.
>>18412557>as the ill-starred US militaryNo, it wasn't and was a success. You are spouting debunked revisionnist nonsense.
>>18412869said Hitler dindonuffin>said Hitler dindonuffin against the communists.>said integration was doomed to fail as blacks were modern slaves in the democrat plantation.>was in collusion with David Duke until duke went full racist.>Praised Jewish role american politics, was incorrectly presented as the opponent of the jews.
>>18412557Dole deserved to win.
