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Aim : What were the major events in the Presidential Election of 1992?. 2. The Presidential Race of 1992. The end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the success in the Persian Gulf War seemed to make Republican President George Bush a strong candidate for reelection.
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Aim: What were the major events in the Presidential Election of 1992?
2. The Presidential Race of 1992 • The end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the success in the Persian Gulf War seemed to make Republican President George Bush a strong candidate for reelection. • The economy remained weak, however, in 1992. • Democrats hoped to defeat Bush by convincing them that Bush could not deal with economic problems. • After the race got started, Republicans and Democrats faced a third candidate---an outspoken independent candidate.
2.1 Campaign for the November Ballot • Some members of the Republican Party were dissatisfied with President Bush’s handling of the economy. • Many were angry that he had agreed to the tax increases of 1990. • Pat Buchanan, a conservative Republican and television commentator, ran a strong campaign against Bush in the primaries. • When the Republicans met in August for their nominating convention, however, Bush easily won re-nomination and kept Dan Quayle as his running mate.
Most of the Democrats who campaigned for their party’s nomination had backgrounds as senators or governors. • As the primary votes added up, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton gradually pulled ahead. Clinton won the nomination at the Democratic convention in July. • He chose Al Gore, senator from Tennessee, as his running mate. • Both men, aged 46 and 44, symbolized the baby boom generation to most Americans.
Nominees for the Democratic Party Jerry Brown Paul Tsongas Bill Clinton
The Democratic Nominee Al Gore Bill Clinton
H. Ross Perot, a Texas billionaire, became a surprising third major candidate for the presidential ballot. • Perot complained that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats were doing enough to reduce the federal deficit. • Early in 1992, he said he would run for President if volunteers could collect enough voter signatures to put his name on the ballot in all 50 states. • Perot formed a campaign organization and announced he would run. • Then, in July, he suddenly surprised the public and disappointed his followers by dropping out of the race.
2.2 The Fall Campaign • After the major parties had chosen their candidates, the final campaigning for the presidency began.
Bush and the Republicans • Speaking to voters, President Bush pledged to put the same kind of effort into solving domestic problems as he had put into Operation Desert Storm. • He promised that if the American people continued to support the Republican policy of cutting back federal spending and keeping taxes down, the economy would improve. • He and Vice President Quayle also made the campaign statement that they stood for American family values.
Republicans attacked Clinton on the same points that they had used during the primaries. • They reminded voters that Clinton had avoided military service during the Vietnam War, that he had no political experience at the national levl and no background in foreign affairs. • The Republicans also accused Clinton as being a tax and spend liberal.
Clinton’s Strategy • Clinton and his supporters accused the Bush administration of ignoring hardships that the economic recession had placed on those who were less fortunate. • They charged that the economic program under Reagan and Bush had only made the rich richer while leaving the poor and middle class hoping that benefits would trickle down to them.
The Clinton people also charged that the Republicans were insensitive to the needs and desires of minority-group Americans. • They claimed that the government should be doing a better job of securing equal treatment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, women, physically challenged persons and others. • They pledged that a Democratic administration would see that these groups received all their constitutional rights. • Most of all, Clinton promised change. He called for a reorganization of federal programs and a national health care plan that would protect all Americans. He claimed that taxes should be paid according to a different plan and that wealthy Americans should pay a greater share.
Perot Returns • Just 33 days before the November 1992 election, Perot announced that he was once again a candidate for president. • Perot appeared with Bush and Clinton in several televised debates. • He also appeared in his own television advertisements calling for cuts in government spending, higher taxes and a sacrifice by all Americans to reduce the federal deficit and the national debt.
2.3 Outcomes of the 1992 Election • On November 3, 1992, voters elected Governor Bill Clinton the 42nd President of the United States. • Although Clinton received less than ½ of the popular vote, he won the vote in the electoral college.
Base of Clinton Support • The results of the presidential election pointed to some voting trends. • Clinton brought back a number of voting blocs, groups of persons with common interests, that old-time Democrats had attracted. • Clinton had held on to most of the black vote, although he had directed little of his campaign toward blacks. • He attracted many young voters and won back many traditional Democrats who had voted for Reagan in 1980 and 1984. • Women also voted for Clinton because of the Democratic “pro-choice” platform rather than the “pro-life” platform of the conservative Republicans.
The Impact of Perot • Perot made the best showing of any third party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt and his Bull Moose Party ran in the election of 1912. • Perot used mass media—methods of communicating with large numbers of people—to speak his message directly to the voters and to try to involve them in the campaign. • Perot’s tactics may have introduced new approaches in the election and political process of the United States.
Congressional Changes • The voters sent significantly more new Senators and Representatives to Congress in 1992 than in 1990. • Some of the newcomers to Congress had replaced incumbents who had decided not to run for reelection. • Others, however, defeated incumbents. • A number of women won new congressional seats. Carol Moseley-Braun became the nation’s first black women senator while Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer gave California two women Senators. • The election did not change the Democratic majority in the House and the Senate.
