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George H Bush Campaign As President
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George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States. He held office between 1989 and 1993. He sought reelection to the White House in 1993, and his main opponent was Democrat presidential candidate Bill Clinton. And as the incumbent President, he had high ratings following the successful Persian Gulf War, but the more pressing issues back home had the intensity to upset his hope of second dream run as President. A tumbling economic growth, spurt of violence in cities and mounting deficit spending cost among other reasons were responsible for his defeat.
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His campaign as President for reelection in 1993 ran into rough weather with some of his own party’s Republicans opposing him for breaking his 1988 promise of not raising taxes when he ran for the first time as President. There were other reasons like changes in personnel. Lee Atwater who was helping Bush during his 1988 campaign died of brain tumor. There was factional infighting inside the Republican National Committee, which was also running short on money. President Bush also lost the effective adviser in John Sununu who resigned following allegations of misusing government transportation for personal uses.
President Bush also lost support from some key Republicans largely due to his unpopular tax rises and cut backs on defense budgets. Then there was the pressure from Patrick Buchanan, a key figure of the party’s right wing section, which forced Bush to take ‘right’ stances towards social issues.
The candidature of Ross Perot as the third party candidate for the Presidential elections in 2003 also worked against George H W Bush bid for a second term. People worst hit by the economic slowdown in the U.S lacked faith in Bush, who they charged was lacking vision.
Typically running a lifeless campaign, some experts felt that George H W Bush was ineffective in communicating his achievements to the public. Then there were the widespread speculations about his ailing health, absence of key players in his campaign and the infamous scene when Bush was seen checking his watch during one of his Presidential debates that made people squirm about his involvement in the important debates.
Eventually George H W Bush could manage only 38 percent of the popular votes as against 43 percent for Bill Clinton and 19 percent for Ross Perot. Bush also managed only 168 Electoral College votes, while Clinton won a whopping 370. Though the Clinton win cannot be called an absolute one, it still meant that Americans wanted a change at the center.
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