The Election of 2000

The 2000 US presidential election was something of a turning point for me. I'd shifted somewhat right-wards during the Clinton years, but I've always been a rather independent thinker. Despite that, I didn't care for the third-party candidates running that year, but I had high hopes for two of the candidates the Republicans and Democrats were putting forward, senators named John McCain and Bill Bradley, respectively. As I considered each candidate carefully as the primaries began, I developed my prioritized list:
1) Bill Bradley
2) John McCain
3) George W. Bush
4) Al Gore

Alas, much to my disappointment, Bradley was effectively out of the race by the time Ohio held its primary, so I registered as a Republican to vote against Bush. Alas, to my even greater disappointment, Bush defeated McCain. This left me with numbers 3 and 4 vying for my vote.

I reconsidered the two men carefully. Bush's conservative Christian views worried me a little, but Gore's ties back to Clinton administration worried me even more, Some folks I knew had been students of Professor Rice during their years at Stanford and spoke highly of her. Given some of the problems I saw with the foreign and military policies of the Clinton administration, I thought Rice's position as the Bush campaign's foreign policy adviser was a sign they'd change course there. (More on that later.) So I finally crossed my fingers and voted for George W. Bush.

The total meltdown that was the election process that year was not fun. The partisan rancor that was exchanged by both sides was a bitter tonic. It set a tone that has lasted to this day. And it was only a prelude to the disappointment that was to come after the hopeful start of the new president's administration.

And therein you have the topic of my next blog post, which will cover the early days of the Bush administration.