Hello and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series and today we will be going over the Election of 2004; George W. Bush has got a major war on his hands following a shocking incident mere months into his term and his also got a tough Democratic challenger in the upcoming election to contend with.

Dubya’s Presidency & The War on Terror

Following the controversial conclusion of the 2000 presidential election, George Walker Bush became the 43rd President of the United States and in his first several months in office he opposed using federal funds for stem cell research and refused to support the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 which planned on dealing with carbon emissions to help the environment.

Bush was able to get onboard with ideas like drilling oil in the Arctic Refuge located in Northeastern Alaska, passed the No Child Left Behind Act as part of his attempts at Education Reform and signing the 2001 Economic Growth and Tax Relief Act which along with the 2003 Job and Growth Tax Relief Act became the largest tax cuts in American History.

While some supported the president’s decisions, others (even without the ability of hindsight) found them to be problematic with environmentalists, teachers and economists finding an issue…Regardless of these complaints, Americans would all have a different opinion about President Bush following the events that took place on September 11th 2001.

On this infamous day in American History, men connected to the terrorist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes with two of them crashing into the World Trade Center located in New York, while one crashed into the Pentagon located in Washington while the last plane ended up crashing into an open field in Pennsylvania as the passengers on that plane recaptured control and prevented it from heading to it’s intended target of Washington DC.

This resulted in thousands of injuries and almost 3,000 people dying not to mention policemen and firefighters who went out to help and look for survivors in New York; It also led to health problems to those who breathed in the materials that made up the World Trade Center and it also lead a period of fear, uncertainty and paranoia in the United States…That can still be felt today.

President Bush famously went to New York not long after the attacks where he gives a short but famous speech which helped in his approval numbers, in fact by the end of his first year as commander-in-chief his numbers reached to 90% which is the highest for any U.S. President on their first year in office since Harry Truman, JFK and Ronald Reagan.

Invasion of Afghanistan and The 2003 War of Iraq

In the wake of the 9/11 Attacks, Bush makes a speech to Congress which is seen as the opening salvo for what would be American’s War on Terror where there would no distinction between the terrorists and those who gave them refuge.

Much like his father when he was president, George Bush was going to have his presidency be centered mainly around foreign policy and on October 7th, he began airstrikes on Afghanistan which was harboring the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and other members of the terrorist group thanks to the Tailban.

By December, American forces allied by the United Kingdom were successful in overthrowning the Tailban and began the process of starting a new government in the region that were friendly to the U.S., sadly they were unsuccessful in capturing Bin Laden who escaped to Pakistan.

While many found America’s invasion of Afghanistan justifiable, what came next by the Bush Adminsration wasn’t justified…As plans were made to invade Iraq to overthrown the ruthless dictator, Saddam Hussein and despite claiming that Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction or the capacity to make these types of weapons…no such evidence ever materialized.

Nonetheless, President Bush sent troops to Iraq and defeated Saddam’s forces within three week and captured Hussein on December 13th 2003 where he was trialed convicted and later executed via hanging.

By the time Bush and his Adminsration were trying to convince Americans to support the invasion of Iraq, sections of the public were beginning to turn on the president which included protests in the streets and questions regarding the accuracy of the information given to the Adminsration.

Things certainly weren’t helped when Bush sent troops to begin nation building in places like Iraq despite declaring “Mission Accomplished” after the invasion, but Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney were very popular within the GOP and both were easily renominated.

John Kerry: The Democrats War Hero Candidate

Considering the closeness of the previous election, some presumed that former Vice President Al Gore would make a third run for the presidency and un-seat Bush much like what Clinton did to HW Bush in 1992, however Gore refused to run for president following Bush’s approval numbers increasing in the wake of the 9/11 Attacks and this led to a host of candidates throwing their names in the race but only three really stood out.

Former Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean was seen as an unlikely candidate for president but his usage of the internet, his grassroots support and progressive policies made him a favorite for the Democrats liberal wing, not to mention he was one of the few Democrats to protest Bush’s invasion of Iraq.

John Edwards, a Senator from North Carolina was similar to that of Al Gore and Bill Clinton in that he was Southern Democrat who was also a centrist with many of his policies and looked like someone who could become a future president.

Finally there was John Kerry, the Senator from Massachusetts and War Hero who served during the Vietnam War and received both the Bronze and Sliver Stars while also getting three Purple Heart Medals during his service.

Kerry was another centrist Democrat who believed in a few liberal ideas, but with Howard Dean coming off as a more progressive candidate compared to Edwards or Kerry, Dean looked like the one to beat going into the Iowa Caucus and by the time the results came in he was indeed defeated as he came in third but his response to this loss became legendary as he gave a speech both with a hoarse voice and a sense of energy that made him look red faced before ending the speech with a passionate “YEAH!”

The infamous ‘The Dean Scream’ moment became fodder for the news networks and talk show hosts alike with the clip being played over 600 times and this plus losing the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire led to Dean dropping out of the race.

By time Super Tuesday rolled around, John Kerry became the Democrats Nominee for President; Although stories persist that Kerry was thinking of chosing Republican Senator from Arizona, John McCain as his running mate as the latter was starting to fall out with the GOP after Bush’s victory in 2000, nothing came of it and instead Kerry chose John Edwards as his running mate.

Campaign Strategies

Alongside issues like the economy and healthcare, foreign policy became the biggest issues of this election with Kerry’s campaign team hyping up his war hero status and Kerry promising to created a special committee to help in re-negotiating America’s trade deals with foreign countries. Kerry also promised to reduce government spending in order to bring down the deficit, prevent businesses from having tax breaks while also offering tax credits to those that hire extra workers and proposed a healthcare plan that would see government run programs getting expanded and provide subsidies for businesses.

Kerry is also bringing up the fact that Bush’s handling of the Iraq invasion should’ve been done with more diplomacy while also criticizing the president over his decisions regarding stem cell research, healthcare and Bush’s attempts at creating new jobs.

President Bush decided to take a page out of his father’s campaign playbook and decided to paint his opponent as a liberal and an untrustworthy person to lead the nation which was demonsrated through the president’s rhetoric and attack ads that portray Kerry as a flip-flopper on issues like his support of a gas tax and the invasion of Iraq.

Bush’s team also attempted to make the president come off as someone who was much tougher on terrorism and more consistant with his political decisions than Kerry.

Both men would serve time during the Vietnam War but both were called out for how they served with many claiming that Bush didn’t fulfill his obligations during his time as part of the Texas Air National Guard while Kerry was criticized for his military service with former soldiers appearing in attack ads attempting to downplay the senator’s achievements.

It’s soon discovered that these soldiers who were a part of a group called ‘Veterans For Truth’ were paid by Republicans connected to the Bush Adminsration including Bush’s senior advisor and campaign strategist, Karl Rove…Still their comments on Kerry’s record and the attack ads would end up hurting John in the election.

Presidential Debates and Same Sex Marriage

By late September into the early weeks of October, their were three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate with around 43.5 million to 62.4 million people viewing them.

While the VP debate saw news networks debate over who won between Cheney and Edwards, the first presidential debate saw Kerry emerge with a much needed victory which was also helped due to the president expressing frustration on his face throughout.

The second debate could be seen as a draw with various news pundits expressing claims that the candidate that represents their party was the winner, however the third debate could be seen as a win for Bush as the issue of same sex-marriage came up.

See the Supreme Court had legalized same sex marriages in Massachusetts and soon many other states were looking to do the same which lead to the Bush Adminsration attempting to rally the conservative base by making same sex marriage an issue on ballot in swing states that would help Bush to victory.

When a question came up about homosexuality being a choice at the third debate, Kerry tried to show hyprocrisy within the Bush Adminsration as they were trying to make an amendment banning gay marriage while at the same time one of Dick Cheney’s daughters was a lesbian…This strategy backfired as evidence by both Dick and Lynne Cheney taking John Kerry to tasks for his comments.

The October Surprise

Even with John Kerry’s ill-advised attempts at pointing out a double standard between the Republicans on the issue of same sex marriage, the polls appeared to have both Bush and Kerry neck-and-neck with experts predicting another close presidential election.

Things took a sudden turn for the best for President Bush when a videotape showing Osama Bin Laden taking responsiblity for the 9/11 Attacks appeared four days before the election on the TV network, Al Jazeera.

The video also saw Bin Laden ridiculing Bush for his anti-terrorism efforts and all this helped to increase the president’s lead in the polls by a few points right up to election day.

Election of 2004: The Results

Despite a controvserial invasion in Iraq and reports of voting machines not working effectively on the day of the election in the state of Ohio, the results were close but nowhere near close like the 2000 election as George W. Bush narrowly won re-election.

President Bush carried 31 states to get 286 electoral votes and received 50.7% of the popular vote. John Kerry won 19 states and D.C. to get 251 electoral votes and received 48.3% of the popular vote…..Also a random elector in Minnesota casted their vote for John Edwards.

Bush ended up winning the smallest margin of victory for any re-elected preisdent with about 3 million votes separated the two in terms of the popular vote. As of the time of this article, George Walker Bush remains the last Republican candidate to have beaten his Democratic challenger in the popular vote and his also the last Republican President to be re-elected to a second term…Again of the timing of this article.

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