Republican Party is one of the two main political parties in the USA, the other being the Democratic Party. American parties have no definite principles. They are opportunists and they adapt themselves to current political opinion. Its nominee Gen. Eisenhower was elected as the President of the USA for the second term in 1956, but its nominee Richard Nixon was defeated in 1960.
Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate for 1964, was defeated. Nixon won the elections in 1968 and 1972. The party was under constant attack in 1974 on account of the disclosures connected with the Watergate scandal and also President Nixon’s tax evasion. President Nixon resigned in August, 1974, when Vice-President Gerald Ford became the President.
Ford was the candidate of the party in 1976 elections; he lost the elections to Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan was elected in November 1980. He adopted conservative policies in dealing with various issues. President Reagan was elected for a second term as President of the USA in 1984. The signing of the INF treaty in December 1987 between USA and USSR was a major personal triumph for President Reagan.
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George Bush was the candidate for the Republican Party in the 1988 Presidential elections. He was elected President. Bush was primarily responsible for taking tough stand against the annexation of Kuwait by Iraq on August 2, 1990. President Bush lost to Bill Clinton in the 1992 elections. Republican nominee Bob Dole lost in 1996.
George W. Bush was the candidate of the Republican Party for the 2000 elections. He won the elections in mid-Dec. 2000, after protracted row over counting of votes in the State of Florida. President Bush was sworn in on Jan. 19, 2001, in Washington D.C. as 43rd President of America.
He announced his plans to pursue National Missile Defence programme vigorously. The American economy after years of growth is entered a period of recession. He called the terrorism unleashed in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, as the first war of the 21st century. He rose to the occasion when the USA was hit by Terror.
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He referred to Iran, Iraq and North Korea as “Axis of Evil”, in his famous State of the Union message in Jan. 2002. He visited South Korea and China in Feb. 2002. President Bush launched a relentless, invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
More than 150.000 US troops have failed to restore order and discipline. Almost a soldier a day was dying in Iraq Till 2008; victims of hit & run tactics. Bush is also getting isolated in the US and his policies are being criticised.
On Sept II, 03, he paid tribute to the innocents killed in the suicide attacks. President Bush, in spite of worldwide criticism of his IRAQ misadventure, was reelected in Nov. 2004, by one of the widest margins of popular vote.
The year 2007 was bad for Bush as he lost a number of his close supporters including Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, Bolton, the UN representative, Wolfowitz, the World Bank President, and Gonzales, the Attorney-General. Bush’s rating fell to an all-time low. He stood isolated in his own party.
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Iran continued to be a headache for Bush, because of its insistence upon going ahead with the acquisitions of nuclear weapons. In Oct. 2007, President Bush warned that Iran’s atom bomb could lead to World War III. He, however, succeeded in persuading N. Korea to abandon the nuclear path.
As mentioned earlier, Obama emerged triumphant in the November, 08 elections. The Republicans have now to wait for the next elections due in 2012 to turn the tide in their favour. Much of the Republicans woes emanated from the arrogant and disgusting personality of Vice-President Dick Cheney.
He was very brusque in his comments and in the process he ruffled many a feather of not only the Republican Party but also the senior senators and congressmen. The CIA and other agencies inflicted also atrocities on the terror suspects including electric shocks and water bodying.
In August 09, President Obama directed that these atrocities would not be tolerated and action would be taken against those responsible” for lowering the image of the United States. He decided to close the prison at Guantanamo, Bay, & shifted the Terror suspects to his home state ILLINOIS.