Obama and George W. Bush Presidency Lecture Outline
George W. Bush Presidency 2000-2008
● 2000 Election
○ Won only by electoral votes from final state win in Florida, but lost popular votes to Democratic Nominee, Al Gore by about 500,000.
■ First election since 1876 that had been disputed. Democrats had requested a manual recount from the Florida counties in question, however Republicans sued to prohibit these hand tallies. Republicans then requested set deadlines that potentially could turn away votes that may have come in for Gore, so Democrats sued to prohibit these. The case ended up at the US Supreme court, which stopped the recount and at that point, Bush had won.
● 9/11
○ September 11, 2001 plane hijackers crash commercial jets into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both of them to collapse. Two more planes crashed into the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people were killed in these terrorist attacks.
■ Immediately, Bush promised the American people to find those responsible. Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden are identified as the terrorists who organized the attack.
■ Bush administration launched full investigation into the attacks after pressure from families of the victims of 9/11. Conclusion from the panel’s final report was that the government “failed to protect the American people” after failure from members in Bush’s cabinet to acknowledge Al Qaeda threats coming in prior to 9/11. This began to draw concern about his presidency and cabinet from the American public.
● Foreign Policy
○ USA Patriot Act passed in October 2001
■ Outlined authority for federal officials to locate and intercept communications for law-enforcement and intelligence-gathering purposes, powers to contain foreign money laundering, and wider discretion in constricting borders against suspected foreign terrorists.
● As an immediate result, many Muslims were detained even though many were U.S. citizens. Protests arose from the decision to attain these citizens in
● 2000 Election
○ Won only by electoral votes from final state win in Florida, but lost popular votes to Democratic Nominee, Al Gore by about 500,000.
■ First election since 1876 that had been disputed. Democrats had requested a manual recount from the Florida counties in question, however Republicans sued to prohibit these hand tallies. Republicans then requested set deadlines that potentially could turn away votes that may have come in for Gore, so Democrats sued to prohibit these. The case ended up at the US Supreme court, which stopped the recount and at that point, Bush had won.
● 9/11
○ September 11, 2001 plane hijackers crash commercial jets into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing both of them to collapse. Two more planes crashed into the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people were killed in these terrorist attacks.
■ Immediately, Bush promised the American people to find those responsible. Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden are identified as the terrorists who organized the attack.
■ Bush administration launched full investigation into the attacks after pressure from families of the victims of 9/11. Conclusion from the panel’s final report was that the government “failed to protect the American people” after failure from members in Bush’s cabinet to acknowledge Al Qaeda threats coming in prior to 9/11. This began to draw concern about his presidency and cabinet from the American public.
● Foreign Policy
○ USA Patriot Act passed in October 2001
■ Outlined authority for federal officials to locate and intercept communications for law-enforcement and intelligence-gathering purposes, powers to contain foreign money laundering, and wider discretion in constricting borders against suspected foreign terrorists.
● As an immediate result, many Muslims were detained even though many were U.S. citizens. Protests arose from the decision to attain these citizens in