Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
deficits and ran a surplus, and Clinton presided over one of America's longest economic
booms.
In 2000 and 2004, George W Bush, the eldest son of George HW Bush, won the pres-
idential elections so narrowly that the divided results seemed to epitomize an increas-
ingly divided nation. 'Dubya' had the misfortune of being president when the high-tech
bubble burst in 2000, but he nevertheless enacted tax cuts that returned federal deficits
even greater than before. He also championed the right-wing conservative 'backlash' that
had been building since Reagan.
On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists flew hijacked planes into New York's World
Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. This catastrophic attack united
Americans behind their president as he vowed revenge and declared a 'war on terror.'
Bush soon attacked Afghanistan in an unsuccessful hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorist cells, then
attacked Iraq in 2003 and toppled its anti-US dictator, Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, Iraq
descended into civil war. Following scandals and failures - torture photos from the US
military prison at Abu Ghraib, the federal response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
and the inability to bring the Iraq War to a close - Bush's approval ratings reached histor-
ic lows in the second half of his presidency.
Though the town of Woodstock, NY, lent its name to the mythic 1969 music fest, the
event actually took place in the nearby hamlet of Bethel, where dairy farmer Max Yasgur
rented his alfalfa field to organizers. Ticket price for the bash: $18 for a three-day pass
($24 at the gate).
Obama
In 2008, hungry for change, Americans elected political newcomer Barack Obama,
America's first African American president. He certainly had his work cut out for him.
These were, after all, unprecedented times economically, with the US in the largest finan-
cial crisis since the Great Depression. What had started as a collapse of the US housing
bubble in 2007 had spread to the banking sector, with the meltdown of major financial
institutions.
Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, launched a decade prior, continued to simmer on the
back burner of the ever-changing news cycle. In 2011, in a subterfuge operation vetted
by President Obama, Navy Seals raided Osama bin Laden's Pakistan hideout and killed
the Al-Qaeda leader, bringing an end to the search for America's greatest public enemy.
Following his sober announcement describing the raid, President Obama saw his ap-
proval ratings jump by 11%. The president, for his part, certainly needed a boost. The
