Al GoreBill Bradley

The Democratic Party nomination came down to two people for the 2000 presidential elections, former senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee. Al Gore had an advantage over Bill Bradley considering that Gore was the incumbent Vice President, which is why Al Gore was chosen over Bill Bradley.

For the Republican party nomination it came down to Governor George W. Bush of Texas and Senator John McCain of Arizona. In the beginning of the primary it looked as though McCain was going to win, however after McCain lost the primary in South Carolina it was all Bush victories from there on then. A factor in George W. Bush’s victory in the primary was his ties to his father, who was president, and also his brother who was also a governor.

Al Gore was born into a world of politics. Gore’s father, Albert Gore, Senior, was a Representative and Senator from Tennessee. Al Gore graduated Harvard with a B.A. in government. Gore enlisted in the army ready to fight in the Vietnam war, even though he opposed it, and he was assigned to be a military journalist. After his time in the army he studied law at Vanderbilt, he then decided to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was twenty eight when elected to the seat. After being re-elected three times in a row to the House of Representatives, Gore decided to run for a seat in the Senate, which he won. He stayed in the Senate until 1993, when he became the Vice President of the United States, which he stayed for both of Bill Clinton’s terms as president.

George W. Bush was born into a family of politics. His grandfather, Prescott Bush was a U.S. senator from Connecticut and George W. Bush’s father, George H. W. Bush, was the President from 1989 to 1993. Bush after high school attended Yale and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in history. After Yale, Bush was accepted into the Texas Air National Guard, during the Vietnam War. Bush then attended Harvard Business School, where he received a MBA. In 1978, he ran for the House of Representatives, but lost. As Bush’s brother, Jeb, ran for the position of governor of Florida, Bush ran for governor of Texas. He was re-elected as governor again in 1998, and almost a year later decided to fun for the presidency.

Al Gore chose Joe Lieberman, a United States Senator from Connecticut, to be his Vice-President in the 2000 Presidential Election. Joe Lieberman was the first Jewish candidate on a major political ticket. Many people believe that having Lieberman being Al Gore’s vice-president increased Gore’s popularity, which resulted in Gore beating Bush in the popular vote.

Dick Cheney was the White House Chief of Staff during Gerald Ford’s presidency. He was also a member of the House of Representatives in 1978. During the 2000 election he head George Bush’s Vice-President search committee. After Cheney showed Bush his findings, Bush was so impressed that he asked Dick Cheney to run with him as his Vice-President.

Ralph Nader was the most successful third party candidate, receiving 2.74 percent in the popular vote. He represented the green party. Nader felt that Gore and Bush were to similar and ran with different ideas, which attracted some people. People say that if Nader had not run that Gore would have most likely received those votes, which would in fact had won him the election.

As the polls were coming to a close it seemed that the race was getting closer and closer. Both George W. Bush and Al Gore had approximately 48 percent of the national vote. With the exception of Florida, Bush carried the Southern states by comfortable margins and also secured wins in Ohio, Indiana, most of the rural Midwestern farming states, and most of the Rocky Mountain states. While Gore carried the Northeastern states, most of the upper Midwest, and the Pacific Coast states. The results showed that Bush had a total of 246 electoral votes, while Gore had won 255 votes and Florida was left with 25 electoral votes that were up for grabs.

Even before the polls had closed in Florida the news was announcing that Gore had won. They based this prediction substantially on exit polls. However, in reality Bush was leading in Florida and soon the news restated that the state was still undecided. It looked as though Bush had won, and even Gore had privately conceded the election to Bush. But soon Gore started to come back, narrowing it by 2,000 votes and Gore took back his statement to Bush. After the first recount it had narrowed down to 500 votes and an automatic recount was declared. Gore asked for hand recounts, by Florida state law, which set in motion numerous recounts by machines and by hand. This was then declared by the United States Supreme Court to be unconstitutional and ended the recount.

 PRESIDENT

EV States Won

Vote %

Votes

BUSH  271 30 48% 50,456,169

GORE 266 21 48% 50,996,116

Although Al Gore lost in the Electoral votes he beat George Bush by 543,895 in the popular vote. If Gore had won his home state of Tennessee he would have defeated Bush, without Florida. Gore was the first major-party presidential candidate to have lost his home state since George McGovern lost South Dakota in 1972.

In the end George W. Bush became our 43rd President of the United States of America.