1992 Primaries (No Reagan Series)

The Ferraro administration began with the highest of hopes but President Ferraro's ambitions and agenda would be hampered by crises at home and abroad.

Domestically, the administration sought to reduce the country’s growing budget deficit by reversing the Ford tax cuts. The Ferraro tax increases easily passed the Democratic-held Congress but proved to be controversial with the public. Republicans chastised the president for not coupling the tax increases with spending cuts but with congressional majorities in both the House and Senate, President Ferraro could afford to shrug off their protests. The President signed the Brady Bill into law in 1990, again to the consternation of Republicans. Other policy triumphs of the administration include the expansion of Earned Income Tax Credit for working families and the raising of the federal minimum wage.

On August 2nd 1990, the state of Iraq invaded Kuwait. The conflict lasted all of two days before Iraq declared victory and installed a puppet regime to govern the state as a de-facto colony. The United States joined the other Security Council states in imposing economic sanctions on Iraq but President Ferraro refused to commit U.S. forces to another ground war in the Middle East. The task of ousting Saddam was left to a Franco-British-Saudi coalition.

Ferraro’s Detente policy proved fruitful. For the first time since 1984, the president of the United States and the General Secretary of the Soviet Union met on amicable terms at a peace summit. Gorbachev’s earnest commitment to disarmament and democratization gave many hope for a lasting peace. In 1991, alarming news reached America from Moscow: the Soviet Union was in the throws of a coup. A cabal of hardline Communist Party officials, the KGB, and elements of the Soviet military had seized the capital and taken both Chairman Gorbachev and President Yeltsin hostage. A statement issued in Gorbachev's name announced his resignation and the appointment of Vice President Yayanev as Acting President of the Soviet Union. The Baltic states and the new state of 'Western Ukraine' have unilaterally declared their independence. Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have renounced their memberships in the Warsaw Pact. The new leadership of the rump USSR continues to claim sovereignty over these areas.

Your candidates:

President Geraldine Ferraro is seeking re-election in the midst of an economic downturn. Ferraro's campaign is focused mostly on her domestic policy achievements, pointing to the renewed economic growth seen in 1992 as evidence that her agenda is the right path forward for America. The President has pledged to continue pursuing Detente with the new leadership of the Soviet Union despite their apparent hostility. In an attempt to shake up the race, Ferraro has announced her support for NAFTA, claiming that free trade will help create jobs for Americans and strengthen America’s exports.

Many suspected that the President would face a primary challenger but no one predicted that it would be Industrialist Ross Perot. Perot has attacked the president for flip-flopping on the trade issue and has warned that NAFTA would cause a “giant sucking sound” of U.S. manufacturing rushing from the states to Mexico. The Perot program calls for a pro-U.S. trade policy, expansive spending cuts (including defence cuts) to balance the budget, a broader war on drugs, support for the Baltic states and Western Ukraine, Medicare to cover all Americans, and direct democracy through ‘electronic town halls’.

Clint Eastwood is the former mayor of the coastal California community of Carmel-By-The-Sea but you may know him better as Dirty Harry, The Man with No Name, or the Outlaw Josey Wales. Eastwood is one of America’s most beloved actors and a man with a history of making controversial political statements. Eastwood is a vocal libertarian and has summarized his domestic agenda as “you leave me the hell alone and I’ll leave you the hell alone”. The actor and former mayor has described himself as a “small government guy” and a “Goldwater Republican”. Eastwood favours non-intervention abroad, a conservative fiscal agenda, same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and the Brady Bill.

Senator Jesse Helms is the most stridently conservative politician of the post-1960 era. Helms is staunchly pro-life, opposed to all forms of gun control, favours the death penalty, has worked to reduce immigration, and is one of the Senate’s most vocal opponents of NAFTA.

Former California Governor George Deukmejian is campaigning as a crusader for the American taxpayer, touting his record of turning California’s 1.5 billion dollar budget deficit into a 1 billion dollar surplus. Deukmejian is playing up his reputation as a ‘tough on crime’ candidate who can clean up the streets.

Donald Rumsfeld is trying to capitalize on the uncertain global situation by running a hawkish campaign centred around foreign policy. Rumsfeld has an impressive resume, having been a U.S. representative, NATO ambassador, White House Chief of Staff, and most recently, the Secretary of Defence under President Ford.

Two days.

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