The public tended to blame Congress, and particularly Speaker Gingrich, for the shutdown. The president’s approval rating rose. But the main issue of the day was the economy, and the upturn during and after 1991 benefited Clinton enormously. By the fall of 1996, unemployment had fallen well below 6 percent, and inflation below 3 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average of leading stocks soared past 6,000, more than triple the average in 1987. Clinton was renominated for a second term without opposition.
A number of Republicans competed in the presidential primaries, but after a slow start Bob Dole of Kansas, the Senate majority leader, won the nomination. Dole had been a senator for more than thirty years, but despite his experience he was a poor campaigner, stiff and monotone. His main proposal was a steep reduction of the deficit and a 15-percent income tax cut. Pressed to explain how this could be done without drastic cuts in popular social programs, especially Social Security and Medicare, he gave a distressingly vague reply. Clinton, a charismatic campaigner, stressed preparing for the twenty-first century and took, in general, an optimistic view of the economy.
On election day Clinton won an impressive victory, sweeping the Northeast, all the Midwest except Indiana, the upper Mississippi Valley, and the Far West. He divided the South with Dole, who carried a band of states running north from Texas. Clinton’s Electoral College margin was substantial, 379 to 159.
The Republicans, however, retained control of both houses of Congress. Many retained, as well, an unquenchable hatred of Clinton.
World History
