Election 2000 Essay, Research Paper
The 2000 United States presidential election included two major candidates Al
Gore and George Bush. Another man by the name of Ralph Nader also played a major
role in the outcome. Nader is a democratic member and he took away many votes
from his fellow democrat, Al Gore, which could have really helped Gore win the
election. As we stand now, George W. Bush will soon become our 43rd president.
On November 7, 2000 many voters were excited and ready to vote. As votes were
being cast, the public was expecting to wake up with a new president being
announced. To our surprise America woke up with what they had slept with; a too
close to call race between Bush and Gore. Two states had yet to be fully
counted, which were Oregon and Florida. Oregon had no major affect on the
outcome because the winner of Florida, with 25 electoral votes, would become our
next president, no matter who won Oregon, with only 7 electoral votes. It was
all up to Florida now; the people?s vote would soon affect the U.S. presidency
and our democracy?s future. Some people in Florida were distraught at the way
the ballots were presented to the public. On many counties? ballots, Pat
Buchanan was sandwiched between Bush and Gore, which many believed took precious
votes away from Al Gore. The next few days go by and still no president. People
watching the news and hear the people that are winning for senate, governor,
Supreme Court and judge. But no one hears anything about the presidency. This
has only happened once before. Everyone was happy because they were living in
history. Late at night people turn on the news only to hear that Bush had won
president. Then Al Gore called George Bush and wished him good luck and said
congratulations. Bush said thanks. As Bush was walking out to give his victory
speech and Al Gore going to give his speech, they heard that George Bush did not
win. This of course got Al Gore happy he called up Bush and said ?nevermind
you haven?t won yet?, Bush said, ? well you don?t have to be so snippety
about it? they then hung up. Even more days have gone by and still no decision
about who is the president.
The overseas ballots were what the people had been waiting for. Some ballots
were not poked in all the way through so the Supreme Court had decided to allow
the votes to be counted. So you could imagine how long that took for them to
count the votes. Everytime someone went to turn on the television they would see
talk shows impersonating Gore and Bush. I could remember this one show they had
people impersonate Gore and Bush they had them have a ?Worm Eating Contest ?
they had Bush win 68 to 62. They had Gore demanding a recount.
After a couple days there was still no word and there would be many people
protesting, holding signs such as Sore Loserman and Bush For Is President. Days
have now turned into weeks. People were now sick and tired of watching the news
and waiting with anticipation to find out who had won. I would hear people who
were frustrated with the fact that it had been weeks and still no word about
president. Some people even thought that Bill Clinton was going to stay for
another term. It was probably very nerve wrecking to be in the place of Gore and
Bush. They had planned to have a decision about who was president a certain day.
But when Gore had heard Bush was going to win he wanted a recount. He got his
recount so that took a couple more days. When they found out the decision that
Bush was still going to win he wanted a recount because he now believed that
Bush was filling in the absentee ballots. It went to the Supreme Court they had
finally decided not to give Al Gore this recount. Which had all lead up to
George W. Bush winning for president. Finally people now know who the president
is.
On December 19,2000 George W. Bush was to meet with the former vice president
Al Gore. They had met each other at the separate sessions. It was a very busy
day both because of the ceremony and the work. Bush had later gone to Al Gore?s
house, which is near the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. Bush had also met
with the president Bill Clinton in the White House. December 18, 2000 Nevada?s
electoral cast their votes which had pushed Bush way past the 270 Electoral
College votes he needed to win the presidency. The next few days people were
worried to see if Bush had kept his promise to his ?? tax-cut plan?. Bush?s
assumed to be vice president Cheney had said that the economy was increasing. He
said that ??tax-cuts were more important than ever.? Cheney said, ?the
reason was because the economy has been slowed significantly.?
Before Bill Clinton had left the White House the next month he had discussed
issues such as visiting the communist North Korea. Their had been a rumor
flowing around that had been floating around. It had said that Cheney was in
battle with General Powell over who ought to be secretary of defense.
The 2000 presidential election was filled with recounts and meetings. People
had gotten mad because Al Gore wanted all those recounts but I thought he
deserved the first and second recounts because you may never know if Bush did or
did not cheat. Al Gore had to do what he felt and he did. George Bush also the
right to get angry (which he didn?t) with all those recounts Gore had wanted.
I thought Bush handled it in a nice manner. And Bush and Gore had no hard
feelings.