Presidential Election Debates: Bush vs. Gore (2000)
The Commission for Presidential Debates (CPD) dream a lot of criticism after it excluded Ross Perot from the 1996 presidential debates and this led the the need to better define the candidate selection criteria. Professor Richard Neustadt, the chair of the CPD's Advisory Committee as cautious however. He told the CPD, "If the new criteria make it easier for more than two candidates to get into the debates, the major-party nominees may just refuse to participate, and then you've lost your best tool for informing the public." That sounded like good advice and on January 6, 2000, the CPD announced their new criteria. It was decided that third-party candidates would have to reach 15 percent in pre-debate polls to receive an invitation to the debates. If a candidate reached 15 percent in pre-debate polls, the Democrats and Republican campaigns would be hard pressed to argue for the exclusion of that candidate.
The change wasn't universally accepted however. Firstly, opponents argued that under the Federal Election Campaign Act, a party that received only 5% of the popular vote qualified for millions of dollars in federal matching funds for the next election. If taxpayers were required to finance a party, and yet the leader of that party couldn't participate in the debate, critics couldn't understand this inconsistency. Critics also argued that it didn't matter how the candidate polled. What should be polled is whether or not the public wanted that candidate included in the debates. Finally, opponents of the new criteria noted how difficult it was for third-party candidates in a winner-take-all system to reach the 15% level in polls. No third-party candidate had done so since the inception of televised presidential debates other than self-financed billionaire Ross Perot.
In 2000, five third-party candidates were on enough state ballots to win an electoral college majority. Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan attracted more media coverage and popular support than the other third-party challengers, and several polls demonstrated that the majority of voters wanted them included in the debates. But by the time the presidential debates rolled around in 2000, both Nader and Buchanan were both polling at under 5%. However a FOX News poll found that 64 percent of eligible voters supported their inclusion in the debates. But since they failed to meet the 15 percent threshold and were excluded from all three presidential debates.
With Nader and Buchanan on the sidelines, Democratic Candidate and sitting Vice-President Al Gore and the Republican Candidate, Texas Governor George W. Bush participated in three presidential debates. These televised debates attracted the smallest audience in the history of televised presidential debates. The real excitement took place outside the debate hall, where helicopters kept watch over 12,000 protesters who complained that the third-party candidates were excluded from the debates and where Ralph Nader was barred from entering a television viewing room even though he had a ticket.
The first of three debates was held in the Clark Athletic Center on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston on October 3. Jim Lehrer of PBS' The News Hour posed questions for each candidate. An estimated 46.6 million viewers tuned into the debate. Lehrer said, "I had no gotcha questions prepared. I saw my role as a facilitator. I wasn’t looking for ways to embarrass either of these guys. I just wanted to make sure that their positions and differences would be explained by them. I thought it was up to each candidate to correct the other’s facts. Because if I fact-checked everything, that’s all I’d do all night."
The debate was remembered not so much for its content, but for Gore's exaggerated sighing and eye-rolling. Lehrer later said, "After the debate I walked out with my family, and one of my daughters said something I’ll never forget. She said, 'Oh Dad, isn’t it something, what Gore did?' I stopped and said, 'What do you mean?' Because as a rule, I only look at the candidate who is speaking. She said, 'All that huffing and puffing and eye-rolling and sighing.' I said, 'My God, I didn’t know anything about it.' And she said, ;Well, Dad, that’s going to be the lead of the debate stories.' And she was right. That night proved beyond any shadow of any doubt that body language is truly important in a presidential debate."
The Vice presidential debate was held two night's later on October 5, 2000 at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky between Democratic VP candidate Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and GOP VP nominee, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. The moderator was Bernard Shaw of CNN. The candidates discussed issues such as Medicare, Social Security, economic issues, the surplus, the future of the U.S. military and its decline of morale, and drugs in school and education reform. Reflecting on the debate in 2016, Lieberman called it one of his proudest moments of the campaign, citing the debate's civil tone as the reason for his satisfaction with the night. An estimated 28.5 million viewers tuned into the debate.
The second presidential debate was held on October 11, 2000 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An estimated 37.5 million viewers tuned into the debate. Bush presented as smart and personable, exceeding expectations of many voters, who had been spun about Bush's lack of intelligence. Gore came across as stiff and wooden. Bush scored points with a ainger about his opponent, when he said, “I’m beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. It’s fuzzy math.”
Bush criticized Clinton administration policies in Somalia, where 18 Americans died in 1993 trying to sort out warring factions, and in the Balkans, where United States peacekeeping troops perform a variety of functions. "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building", Bush said in the second presidential debate.
The final debate took place on October 17 at Washington University in St. Louis. Once again Lehrer served as moderator. It was a town hall-style debate, featuring questions asked by members of the audience. An estimated 37.7 million viewers tuned into the debate. Although the campaign focused mainly on domestic issues, such as the projected budget surplus, proposed reforms of Social Security and Medicare, health care, and competing plans for tax relief, foreign policy was often an issue. Bush also pledged to bridge partisan gaps, claiming the atmosphere in Washington stood in the way of progress on necessary reforms. Gore questioned Bush's fitness for the job, pointing to gaffes Bush made in interviews and speeches and suggesting he lacked the necessary experience to be president.
Bill Clinton's impeachment and the sex scandal that led up to it cast a shadow on the campaign. Republicans strongly denounced the Clinton scandals, and Bush made a promise to restore "honor and dignity" to the White House a centerpiece of his campaign. Gore chose to avoid the Clinton scandals. So did Lieberman, even though Lieberman had been the first Democratic senator to denounce Clinton's misbehavior. It was believed that Gore chose Lieberman as his running mate in an attempt to distance himself from Clinton. Gore avoided appearing with Clinton, who had limited involvement in the campaign, mostly in areas where he was popular.
Though he was not in the debates, Ralph Nader was the most successful of the third-party candidates. His campaign was marked by a traveling tour of large "super-rallies" held in sports arenas like Madison Square Garden, with retired talk show host Phil Donahue as master of ceremonies. After initially ignoring Nader, the Gore campaign made a pitch to potential Nader supporters in the campaign's final weeks, arguing that Gore's ideas were more similar to Nader's than Bush's were and that Gore had a better chance of winning than Nader.
As everyone knows, on election night, it was unclear who had won, with the electoral votes of the state of Florida still undecided. The returns showed that Bush had won Florida by such a close margin that state law required a recount. A month-long series of legal battles led to the highly controversial 5-4 Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore, which ended the recount. This meant that Bush won Florida by 537 votes, a margin of 0.009%. The Florida recount and subsequent litigation resulted in major post-election controversy. Ultimately, Bush won 271 electoral votes, one more than a majority, despite Gore receiving 543,895 more votes (a margin of 0.51% of all votes cast).
The change wasn't universally accepted however. Firstly, opponents argued that under the Federal Election Campaign Act, a party that received only 5% of the popular vote qualified for millions of dollars in federal matching funds for the next election. If taxpayers were required to finance a party, and yet the leader of that party couldn't participate in the debate, critics couldn't understand this inconsistency. Critics also argued that it didn't matter how the candidate polled. What should be polled is whether or not the public wanted that candidate included in the debates. Finally, opponents of the new criteria noted how difficult it was for third-party candidates in a winner-take-all system to reach the 15% level in polls. No third-party candidate had done so since the inception of televised presidential debates other than self-financed billionaire Ross Perot.
In 2000, five third-party candidates were on enough state ballots to win an electoral college majority. Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan attracted more media coverage and popular support than the other third-party challengers, and several polls demonstrated that the majority of voters wanted them included in the debates. But by the time the presidential debates rolled around in 2000, both Nader and Buchanan were both polling at under 5%. However a FOX News poll found that 64 percent of eligible voters supported their inclusion in the debates. But since they failed to meet the 15 percent threshold and were excluded from all three presidential debates.
With Nader and Buchanan on the sidelines, Democratic Candidate and sitting Vice-President Al Gore and the Republican Candidate, Texas Governor George W. Bush participated in three presidential debates. These televised debates attracted the smallest audience in the history of televised presidential debates. The real excitement took place outside the debate hall, where helicopters kept watch over 12,000 protesters who complained that the third-party candidates were excluded from the debates and where Ralph Nader was barred from entering a television viewing room even though he had a ticket.
The first of three debates was held in the Clark Athletic Center on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Boston on October 3. Jim Lehrer of PBS' The News Hour posed questions for each candidate. An estimated 46.6 million viewers tuned into the debate. Lehrer said, "I had no gotcha questions prepared. I saw my role as a facilitator. I wasn’t looking for ways to embarrass either of these guys. I just wanted to make sure that their positions and differences would be explained by them. I thought it was up to each candidate to correct the other’s facts. Because if I fact-checked everything, that’s all I’d do all night."
The debate was remembered not so much for its content, but for Gore's exaggerated sighing and eye-rolling. Lehrer later said, "After the debate I walked out with my family, and one of my daughters said something I’ll never forget. She said, 'Oh Dad, isn’t it something, what Gore did?' I stopped and said, 'What do you mean?' Because as a rule, I only look at the candidate who is speaking. She said, 'All that huffing and puffing and eye-rolling and sighing.' I said, 'My God, I didn’t know anything about it.' And she said, ;Well, Dad, that’s going to be the lead of the debate stories.' And she was right. That night proved beyond any shadow of any doubt that body language is truly important in a presidential debate."
The Vice presidential debate was held two night's later on October 5, 2000 at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky between Democratic VP candidate Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and GOP VP nominee, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. The moderator was Bernard Shaw of CNN. The candidates discussed issues such as Medicare, Social Security, economic issues, the surplus, the future of the U.S. military and its decline of morale, and drugs in school and education reform. Reflecting on the debate in 2016, Lieberman called it one of his proudest moments of the campaign, citing the debate's civil tone as the reason for his satisfaction with the night. An estimated 28.5 million viewers tuned into the debate.
The second presidential debate was held on October 11, 2000 at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An estimated 37.5 million viewers tuned into the debate. Bush presented as smart and personable, exceeding expectations of many voters, who had been spun about Bush's lack of intelligence. Gore came across as stiff and wooden. Bush scored points with a ainger about his opponent, when he said, “I’m beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. It’s fuzzy math.”
Bush criticized Clinton administration policies in Somalia, where 18 Americans died in 1993 trying to sort out warring factions, and in the Balkans, where United States peacekeeping troops perform a variety of functions. "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building", Bush said in the second presidential debate.
The final debate took place on October 17 at Washington University in St. Louis. Once again Lehrer served as moderator. It was a town hall-style debate, featuring questions asked by members of the audience. An estimated 37.7 million viewers tuned into the debate. Although the campaign focused mainly on domestic issues, such as the projected budget surplus, proposed reforms of Social Security and Medicare, health care, and competing plans for tax relief, foreign policy was often an issue. Bush also pledged to bridge partisan gaps, claiming the atmosphere in Washington stood in the way of progress on necessary reforms. Gore questioned Bush's fitness for the job, pointing to gaffes Bush made in interviews and speeches and suggesting he lacked the necessary experience to be president.
Bill Clinton's impeachment and the sex scandal that led up to it cast a shadow on the campaign. Republicans strongly denounced the Clinton scandals, and Bush made a promise to restore "honor and dignity" to the White House a centerpiece of his campaign. Gore chose to avoid the Clinton scandals. So did Lieberman, even though Lieberman had been the first Democratic senator to denounce Clinton's misbehavior. It was believed that Gore chose Lieberman as his running mate in an attempt to distance himself from Clinton. Gore avoided appearing with Clinton, who had limited involvement in the campaign, mostly in areas where he was popular.
Though he was not in the debates, Ralph Nader was the most successful of the third-party candidates. His campaign was marked by a traveling tour of large "super-rallies" held in sports arenas like Madison Square Garden, with retired talk show host Phil Donahue as master of ceremonies. After initially ignoring Nader, the Gore campaign made a pitch to potential Nader supporters in the campaign's final weeks, arguing that Gore's ideas were more similar to Nader's than Bush's were and that Gore had a better chance of winning than Nader.
As everyone knows, on election night, it was unclear who had won, with the electoral votes of the state of Florida still undecided. The returns showed that Bush had won Florida by such a close margin that state law required a recount. A month-long series of legal battles led to the highly controversial 5-4 Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore, which ended the recount. This meant that Bush won Florida by 537 votes, a margin of 0.009%. The Florida recount and subsequent litigation resulted in major post-election controversy. Ultimately, Bush won 271 electoral votes, one more than a majority, despite Gore receiving 543,895 more votes (a margin of 0.51% of all votes cast).