The Impeached Lecture Summary

Andrew Johnson's Presidency (1865-1869)

Seventeenth President of the United States.
Elected under the National Union Party, a party created by Lincoln to appear less partisan during the 1864 election.
Johnson was Lincoln's second vice president, replacing Hannibal Hamlin, who was deemed too radical.
Born in 1808 in Tennessee, Johnson grew up poor. His father died when he was three, and his mother became the breadwinner.
Apprenticed to a tailor, where he learned to read.
Entered politics at a young age, becoming alderman and then mayor. By 1835, he was in the Tennessee State Legislature.
Elected to the US House four years after his thirtieth birthday.
Appealed to the masses in the Jacksonian sense, advocating for the working class and states' rights.
Viewed the planter class as an aristocracy suppressing the white working class through slave power.
Firmly proslavery and owned about eight slaves, though he never sold one.
Authored gag resolutions to prevent the discussion of slavery in the House.
As a senator, he sponsored the Homestead Act to prevent the expansion of the slave aristocracy by allowing small farmers to settle the West.
The Homestead Act was not open to African Americans until after the fourteenth amendment.
He did not like secession and was the only Southern senator to remain after his state seceded.
Accusations of drunkenness were used against him by both the aristocracy and radical Republicans.
Was allegedly drunk at his inaugural address as Vice President.
Supported Lincoln's 10% oath plan for Reconstruction but added that amnesty would not be available to those owning more than 20,000 worth of property.
Allowed wealthy Southerners to individually appeal to him to regain their rights.
Feared African Americans gaining political power and opposed their participation in constitutional conventions.
Supported white supremacy and did not speak out against black codes in the South, which restricted the freedom of African Americans.
Was silent on the growth of the Klan.
Vetoed the Federal Freedmen's Bureau, which aimed to provide assistance to former slaves.
Congressional Reconstruction in 1867: Radical Republicans gained control of Congress and took over Reconstruction.
Frederick Douglass advocated for black male suffrage, but Johnson was opposed, leading to racial epithets directed at Douglass.
Vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which offered citizenship without regard to race or color, but Congress overturned the veto.
The Black codes severely restricted the rights and movements of African Americans, often leading to their arrest and convict leasing.
Convict leasing was a system of forced labor that was often more brutal than slavery.
The Fourteenth Amendment was passed to guarantee citizenship and nationalize civil rights, but it lacked enforcement.
Congress reduced the number of Supreme Court justices to prevent Johnson from appointing pro-Southern justices.
Impeached for violating the Tenure in Office Act after firing Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War.
The real reason for his impeachment was his opposition to Reconstruction and African American rights.
Johnson's public persona and intemperate speeches were cited as unbecoming of a chief magistrate. Congress worried he would abuse his power while they were out of session.
Impeached by the House, but the Senate fell one vote short of convicting him.

Bill Clinton's Presidency (1993-2001)

Forty-second President of the United States.
First baby boomer president, born in 1946 in Hope, Arkansas.
Inspired by JFK to enter politics.
Attended Georgetown, earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, and received a JD from Yale in 1973.
Taught at the University of Arkansas Law School.
Elected governor in 1976 but lost reelection in 1982. Reelected in 1986 and served until 1992.
Won the presidency in 1992 in a three-way race against George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot.
Bush's approval rating had risen in 1991 due to desert storm but later eroded because of tax increases and a struggling economy.
Clinton, sensing Bush's vulnerability, successfully ran for president.
Attacked by Democratic colleagues in the primary for his youth and inexperience.
Well-liked and known for his personal approach. He played the saxophone on Arsenio Hall's show and appeared on MTV.
Attacked for rumored womanizing.
Ross Perot: Billionaire who ran as a third-party candidate, initially leading in the polls. He later withdrew and reentered the race, diminishing his popularity.
Bush challenged in the Republican primary by Pat Buchanan.
Clinton's campaign focused on the economy with the famous slogan, "It's the economy, stupid."
Initially, the White House was run in a relaxed, informal manner under Clinton.
Acknowledged that like Carter, Clinton struggled to manage the process of getting things done in congress.
Discarded his middle-class tax cut promise in favor of deficit reduction.
Health care proposal failed due to opposition from for-profit health care interests and lack of specific details.
Appointed Hillary Clinton as the head of the task force to create the details of the Clinton health care plan, leading to controversy.
The GOP launched a public campaign against the Canadian type system, labeling it as government control before Clinton even had a plan.
The GOP response with a very advanced public campaign against the Canadian type system, they pre labeled that it was gonna be government control before Clinton even had a plan.
The second thing he did wrong after telling what he was going to do before he actually knew what he was going to do, before he had the plan ready to hand to congress that was going to lay out what it was going to look like, he then appointed Hillary Clinton, who was going by Clinton at the time, to be the lead of the task force. The world went nuts. People thought that it was weird that the wife of a president would have a governmental responsibility.

Legislative Successes and Failures

Signed the Family Medical Leave Act and Motor Voter Act.
Passed NAFTA with both Democratic and Republican support.
Suffered a significant loss in the 1994 midterm elections, with Democrats losing control of both the House and the Senate.
Newt Gingrich and the Republicans pioneered the Contract with America.

Triangulation Strategy

Clinton used triangulation, working with Republicans on popular issues to improve his image.
Gingrich triggered a government shutdown in 1995, attempting to undermine his presidency.
During the Shutdown, Republicans attempted to make Clinton a one term president by more or less gunking up the whole system. But Clinton finds a way to strike back and uses what Dick, Morris calls triangulation. He didn't want it to, fight the GOP agenda, but to fast track the things that were palatable and popular popular.
Gingrich wanted to fight and make you look bad. And if you don't allow him a fight, he doesn't stand a chance to win in the next round.
So Clinton should permit the GOP to lower the deficit and reduce government, would offer alternative paths of the same vision. We'd fight about the the details and not the overall vision.
Clinton stayed in the White House while national parks and other sites were shut down, blaming Gingrich.
Continued welfare reform by signing the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) bill.
Pioneered the "Third Way"

Third Way Policies

Declared the era of big government over.
Pushed value campaigns, V-chips in TVs, local curfews for teens, and increased the number of cops in local neighborhoods.

Foreign Policy Considerations:

Successes:

Enlargement Policy

Spreading democracy to increase peace, democratic peace theory, democracies do not go to war with each other

Yugoslavia in 1995, in 1999 he had to go back and deal with, Milosevic in Serbia, Polomata Kosovo.
Clinton's pioneering effort to fight a ersat war
Allow local people to fight on the ground, and The United States would provide air support, with military advisors.
Clinton signed the Dayton Accords and peace treaty

Failures:

Somalia: Where the US withdrew because citizens of The United States were concerned about sending troops there, even to help, since it did not align with a direct national interest from the United States.

Rwanda: The inaction due to Somalia by the UN lead to the extermination of thousands of ethnic tribal people.

**Clinton Re-elected:

His campaign slogan to build a Bridge to the Twenty First Century, even got the band Fleetwood Mac back together and played “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow”.

Clinton Re-Election - the three-way Race

Even though Perot wasn’t really a force at that time, the closest Democrats had come since carter.

2% until they got to Obama, but like mentioned Perot was apart of the race.

Dodged Proposals-Travelgate, Whitewater, and Lewinsky

Whitewater where President Clinton ended up losing money, however the people around him were guilty of gaining extra revenue while Clinton was Governer. *With a special counsel there wasn’t even wrong doing done by either Bill, Nor Hillary Clinton.
*The Travel Office had employees fire, and replace them with political friends.

Lewinsky

The Shutdown brought her closer to the President’s ear since she was an intern.*
It was denied by Clinton, until he was forced to correct him.

It was the new day of harassment for both Women in business and a newly realized social issue.

He was Impeached easily in the house, but with control of the senate and more lawyers on staff in The Senate it died quickly.

**THE STAR REPORT IS RELEASED

John Goodman Played Tripp.
Lewinsky was called unattractive publicly.

POLITICANS ARE EXPECTED TO LIE, IS A REASONING IN A LOT OF VOTERS MINDSETS*
Democrats were saved by Clinton from Mid term Distraction*

Clinton walks out as the popular precent EVER to leave his post.