Analyze the Presidential election of 2004. What happened and why?
Analyze the changing nature of the media and how that is affecting politics.
The two questions identified above cannot be adequately answered alone without one influencing the other because a campaign that influences the election of the most powerful position in the world is a public event. However, after months of predictions of a too-close-to-call contest, Bush won nationwide balloting making him the 15th president elected to a second term and the first to win both a majority of the popular vote and the Electoral College since his father in 1988. The GOP also extended its majorities in the House and Senate.
The Presidential election followed a political campaign
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Those who opposed the president did so because of his decision to go to war in Iraq and how it was carried out and their nervousness about the economy. As it turned out Kerry's vote was anti-Bush, it wasn't pro-Kerry.
Voter turnout hit record highs nationally, and the total for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney was higher than any previous presidential ticket. Some of the greatest percentage gains over 2000 came in 13 states that were the battleground in the presidential election. Millions of dollars were spent on TV ads and voter mobilization. Interestingly, Democratic strategists had predicted that turnout at those levels would assure victory. But Democratic voter drives were matched in large part by Republicans, particularly religious conservatives.
Voters conveyed a sense of urgency about Iraq, and their top priority for President Bush to tackle after his re-election. Iraq was followed by terrorism among voters' leading concerns. Voters also conveyed they want the President to cut the deficit and balance the budget rather than reducing taxes.
After a campaign dominated by discussion of Iraq and terrorism, national security issues were at the top of voters' concerns along with the economy. Many voters indicated through their votes they were also concerned about "moral values". This election confirmed that we are a divided nation, not only politically, but in terms of our interpretation of religion. The
The late and minimal response to Hurricane Katrina by the government caused public anger. Requests to strengthen the levee system were denied by the government previously. This, along with a delayed order to evacuate and minimal aid led to the decline of Bush’s popularity. The Bush administration always prided itself on the ability to deal with disaster and Hurricane Katrina disproved this. The immigration issue also hurt Bush’s image because during his first campaign, he strived to win the Hispanic vote by downplaying the immigration issue. Once the public started to realize the size of the issue they panicked and called for the closing of the US border. The House eventually approved a bill making it illegal to be an undocumented immigrant and to offer aid to them. Massive demonstrations of immigrants and supporters filled big cities. Bush has lost the immigrant's support and they represent a large portion of the population. The recession was the final straw in Bush’s presidency. The banking system and the housing market collapsed. The stock market also declined record amounts since the Great Depression. As the figurehead of this country, Bush received much of the blame for these problems. The 2008 election brought hope for a new era with president
The election of 2000 was a very tight battle. This particular election came down to the state of Florida. Florida had 25 electoral votes at the time, so this state was extremely important. Nationwide, Al Gore lead George W. Bush by roughly 500,000 votes. This may seem like a large margin, but the race was not over. Gore still needed the correct amount of electoral votes. Ultimately, Bush won the election and served two terms as President of the United States. If you take a look at the numbers and the specific circumstances of this race, it is hard to believe that this race was legitimate. First and foremost, the state of Florida purged 20,000 registered voters and did not allow them cast their votes. Normally, this would affect both candidates.
The year 2000 held one of the most controversial elections of all time. Al Gore, Vice President for eight years, against George W. Bush, son of former President H. W. Bush. Both Gore and Bush sought to distance themselves from their normal parties, to make a unique approach to their political ideas. The 2000 United States presidential election was one of the closest presidential elections in history. A month of recounts and court challenges followed, culminating in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore. Following the court’s 5-4 decision, George W. Bush was declared the winner over Vice President Al Gore by 537 votes in the state of Florida. Domestic issues as opposed to foreign policy dominated the campaign. Key issues were prescription drug prices, campaign finance reform, Social Security, and education. Each candidate claimed their economic plan would reduce the deficit. Bush parodied himself as a “compassionate conservative.”
The 2012 presidential election was fundamentally different than the presidential election of 2004. In 2004, George W Bush defeated John Kerry with 62,028,719 votes, which was essentially 50.8 percent of the ballots cast. In 2004 the issue that was of most concern for Americans was terrorism. Furthermore, the attacks on September 11th 2001 served in bringing the country together to help secure the win for Bush. The polling data shows that 52 percent of the people believed that Bush would do a better job dealing with terrorism and homeland security, versus 29 percent for Kerry. Voters seemed to prefer Bush in dealing with problems in Iraq, 50 to 37 and furthermore, on moral issues, by 47 to 29. Kerry was ahead 48 to 32 on jobs and unemployment and by a fairly wide margin of 51 to 28 on health care. When comparing how people voted, Kerry had the majority of
Saddam Hussein fled from the U.S. troops, but he was then later captured (Burgan Michael, page 39). Bush fought Europe’s ban on importing artificial crops from the U.S. (urondisplay.com page 1). The next major event was the Iraq War, which George led (Rumsch, BreAnn page 5). The U.S. was concerned about Iraq’s neighbor, Iran. Iran wanted to build nuclear power plants for energy, but those plants could produce nuclear bombs (Burgan, Michael page 31). Bush was one of the strongest, if not the strongest, friend Israel has ever had in the U.S presidency (www.urondisplay.com page 3). Illegal Immigration was a major issue because people from other countries needed jobs (Burgan, Michael page 35). Most of the foreign issues he had were solved using the
There is quite a bit of controversy involved in the presidential election of 2000. There is evidence to support that Al Gore would have in fact won the election, if it were fair to both parties. This is not to say that the outcome was necessarily to George W. Bush’s fault, but the final result was improperly and unjustly swayed in his direction. The nation was held in the balance for nearly an entire month to learn the outcome of the election and who would be the next president of the United States of America. George W. Bush, losing the popular vote, managed to win the electoral votes giving him the victory due to legal technicalities and improper equipment. The series of events ensuing the election quickly showed that there were
As the 2016 Presidential election is approaching and President Barack Obama’s term is coming to a close, I’d like to look back at the previous election of 2012 and analyze what exactly happened. From the parties themselves to campaign fundraising and propaganda effectiveness.
The free fall of the economy with so many families defaulting on their mortgages and being homeless, with the cause being attributed to the unscrupulous and greedy deregulated banks. Also financial institutions, the auto industry and insurance companies all needing federal financial bailouts to keep from bankruptcy. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were very unpopular, not finding any Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, America’s backing the weak and ineffective Afghan government also reading every day of American soldiers dying in these wars, all contributed to the loss of faith in the Bush administration. The Republican Party tactic, of trying to discredit Obama on his religious beliefs, the possibility of him not being an American citizen because he had a black African father, and his color all contributed to issues that effected the election. Sarah Palin was added to the Republican ticket as a way to get the female vote. Nothing the Republican Party did worked. The mess the economy was in made the country need a change and that’s why Obama won easily.
In the 2000 election, Bush and running mate Dick Cheney (1941-), a former congressman and U.S. defense secretary under George H.W. Bush, defeated Vice President Al Gore (1948-) and his running mate, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (1942-) of Connecticut, by a margin of 271-266 electoral votes, though Gore won the popular vote by 48.4 percent to Bush’s 47.9 percent. The 2000 election was the fourth election in U.S. history in which the winner of the electoral votes did not carry the popular vote.
The Al Gore and G.W Bush 2000 election obviously, had complications in Florida resulting in Bush becoming president elect. Watching, the film the democrats were betrayed as a under dog, protagonists, with the republicans being evil and trying to sabotage the democrat's chance of winning.
Bush and his team came to power in a controversial circumstances, having pledged during the
The first year of Presidential elections to be analyzed is that of 1988. Records show that in 1988, in which Dukakis and Bush were battling for the title of President, the turnout was even lower than the average expectation and only 91,594,686 people showed up to cast their vote. This figure concludes that 50.1 percent of people eligible to vote came to elect the president of their choice and the rest did not show interest. (Wright, 1995)
Even though Mark Hanna during the election year of President Benjamin Harrison stated the following, “There are two things that are important in politics; the first is money, and I can't remember what the second one is;” this election brought that unacknowledged fact to the forefront of economic politics. In 2000, the Bush campaign solidified the fact that in order to get the message out, the campaign needed cash because the engagement of the electorate had changed. The majority of the electorate was receiving their information from television. Nationwide, the Bush campaign outspent Gore by $9 million, $85.1 million for Bush and $77.1 million for Gore. Fast-forwarding to the Battleground State of Florida, illustrates the fact that money does decide elections. In Florida, combined Bush campaign and Republican Party ad spending was nearly even with Gore and Democratic spending in the Key West Palm Beach, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Orlando media markets. But in the politically conservative markets of (Mobile, AL-) Pensacola and Jacksonville, Bush forces substantially outspent Gore ($820,000-350,000 in Pensacola, $1.1 million-$130,000 in Jacksonville). And, in all-important Miami reaching Miami-Dade and much of Broward counties Bush and the Republicans spent $6 million to Gore and the Democrats’ $3.4 million.
In due course of the most recent decade, there has been a significant surge in American independent voters. It is of verifiable significance to put into thought the effects of these voters, especially, since the United States (U.S.) currently undergone its ' eagerly awaited 2016 Presidential General Election. It is with relevance to presidential elections that we have seen a political surge on American independent voters and thus having political candidates attempt to sway their view, we have seen fundamental compelling percentages on these election outcomes.
President Bush's implementation of the invasion increased his approval rating from 60 percent to 76 percent in just one month. By November, the majority of the American people, 70 percent felt that the US should wait before going to war. On October 20, President Bush stated his 1988 campaign pledge, "no new taxes." People were no longer interested in the Gulf a few months after Bush's speech, but were becoming more interested in domestic policy.