Deck 34: America in a New Millennium

Question 1

During the 1992 presidential campaign, critics called Bill Clinton "Slick Willie" for his inconsistent position on controversial issues.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

In Afghanistan in 2001, the United States installed a democratic government led by the Taliban.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

One legislative victory for President Clinton came when Congress approved NAFTA.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

President George W. Bush gave control of Iraq's oil supply as one major reason for the 2003 invasion.

Question 5

Bush clinched reelection in 2004 by carrying the electoral votes of Ohio.

Question 6

The greatest number of violent crime victims were

A) women
B) immigrants
C) business owners
D) poor whites
E) young black men

Question 7

Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives.

Question 8

By 2000, the largest number of legal immigrants to the United States came from:

A) Canada
B) Mexico
C) India
D) Korea
E) Nigeria

Question 9

In 2008, Barack Obama ran an impressive Internet-based campaign.

Question 10

By 2011, the conservative insurgency led by the Tea Party focused on the record-breaking federal deficit and the tepid economic recovery (2011 home sales were the worst in history).

Question 11

The Dodd-Frank bill also called for government agencies to exercise less oversight over highly leveraged and highly complex new financial instruments.

Question 12

George W. Bush won the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election.

Question 13

In the 2008 campaign, John McCain promised to withdraw from Iraq faster than Obama.

Question 14

President Clinton, trying to persuade Congress to reject a free-trade bill, said that if the bill passed, the country would hear a "giant sucking sound" of American jobs being drawn to Mexico.

Question 15

The United States entered the 1990s

A) threatened by rival alliances in Europe and Asia
B) slipping behind much of the world in technological development
C) with limited influence beyond its borders
D) as the world's only remaining superpower
E) still preoccupied by the cold war

Question 16

Between 1997 and 2006, home prices rose very impressively in sunbelt states.

Question 17

Al Gore was elected vice president in 1992.

Question 18

The economic-stimulus bill is also called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Question 19

By 2000, for the first time in the nation's history, the majority of immigrants came not from Europe but from other parts of the world.

Question 20

As George H. W. Bush prepared for the 1992 election, his greatest weakness became

A) a major downturn in the economy
B) the end of the cold war
C) his lack of a compelling vision for the future
D) his support for the religious right agenda
E) the continuing threat of Saddam Hussein to American security

Question 21

The Republican Contract with America

A) aimed to reduce big government and limit the welfare state
B) was enacted by the new Republican Congress
C) gave the Republicans a winning platform in the 1996 election
D) revived the moderate Republicanism of the Eisenhower era
E) stated general principles, but lacked specific proposals

Question 22

In 1993, Clinton was able to preside over the signing of a peace agreement between the leaders of Israel and

A) Egypt
B) Syria
C) Lebanon
D) Jordan
E) the PLO

Question 23

The welfare-reform measure passed by Congress in 1996

A) was opposed by the Republicans
B) was applauded by liberals
C) limited the amount of time one could receive welfare payments
D) quickly began to lower poverty rates
E) significantly increased federal funding for welfare

Question 24

Clinton's plan for universal medical coverage

A) was partially approved
B) was shot down in Congress
C) increased his already impressive approval ratings
D) was a minor part of b legislative agenda
E) would make doctors federal employees

Question 25

The dramatic growth in American exports in the last years of the twentieth century was mainly indicative of

A) American military power
B) globalization
C) government regulation of trade
D) the breakup of the Soviet Union
E) the falling cost of transportation

Question 26

The fundamental source of instability in the Balkans in the 1990s was

A) the poverty of the region
B) conflict over supplies of petroleum
C) the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991
D) Genman and ltalian ambitions in the area
E) conflict between Orthodox Christians and Catholics

Question 27

What nearly cost Clinton his presidency was

A) his long history of improper sexual behavior
B) lying about his relationship with a White House intern
C) using public office to illegally enrich himself
D) improper hiring and firing practices in the White House
E) trying to pressure members of a grand jury

Question 28

The politician who led the Republican takeover of Congress in the mid-1990s was

A) Kenneth Starr
B) Newt Gingrich
C) Dick Cheney
D) Pat Buchanan
E) Alan Greenspan

Question 29

In his bid for renomination by the Republicans, Bush faced spirited conservative opposition from

A) Pat Buchanan
B) Bob Dole
C) Newt Gingrich
D) Pat Robertson
E) Jack Kemp

Question 30

During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush

A) emphasized how diiferent a president he would be from his father
B) promised he would be known as the environmental president
C) stated bis opposition to "nation buiding’ overseas
D) promised to attack and 'take out" Saddam Hussein
E) accused Al Gore of being a tool of the oil industry

Question 31

The Christian Coalition

A) unike the Moral Majority, tended to favor Democrats
B) founded a national chain of mega-churches
C) became a major political force in the 1990's
D) advocated government anti-poverty programs
E) was dominated by mainline Protestants such as Methodists and Presbyterians

Question 32

Bill Clinton's emerging strategy in the 1992 election was to

A) attack Bush's character and fitness for office
B) claim he would be much tougher on the foreign adversaries of the United States
C) take more centrist positions to win middle-class white votes
D) move leftward to win huge majorities among women and minorities
E) stick to his principles no matter what the political cost might be

Question 33

The conservative mood of the mid-1990s especially manifested itself in a number of court rulings that limited

A) capital punishment
B) government spending
C) church-state separation
D) affirmative action
E) sexual freedom

Question 34

The major purpose of the passage of NAFTA was to

A) give Clinton an easy poltical victory
B) protect American industries such as steel and textiles
C) reward Clinton's supporters in organized labor
D) promote freer trade with Canada and Mexico
E) send American jobs overseas

Question 35

In 1999, NATO air strikes helped stop "ethnic cleansing" in

A) Bosnia
B) Somalia
C) Haiti
D) Kosovo
E) Northern Ireland

Question 36

As a result of the Starr Report:

A) Clinton was completely exonerated
B) the Senate convicted Clinton of obstruction of justice
C) Clinton had no influence for the rest of his presidency
D) Clinton was impeached
E) the personal lives of presidents were declared to be off limits

Question 37

All of the following were features of the economy during the Clinton years EXCEPT

A) declining worker productivity
B) surging stock prices
C) low unemployment
D) federal budget surpluses
E) a proliferation of dot-com enterprises

Question 38

Bush's major legislative victory in 2001 came with Congress's passage of

A) new environmental regulations
B) health-care reform
C) term limits
D) a tax cut
E) banking industry regulation

Question 39

Ultimately, the outcome of the 2000 election depended upon the final result in

A) lowa
B) Texas
C) California
D) Ohio
E) Florida

Question 40

All of the following were arguments in favor of health-care reform EXCEPT

A) the need to contain soaring medical costs
B) the huge number of people without health insurance
C) the costs to businesses of insuring their employees
D) successful health-insurance programs in other advanced countries
E) the support of drug companies and the insurance industry for reform

Question 41

President Bush's response to the financial crisis was to

A) state publicly that nothing could be done until the markets corrected themselves
B) support a federal bailout of the banking industry
C) put the unemployed to work bulding roads and bridges
D) say he had lost faith in the frec-enterprise system
E) blame it on Americans being greedy and not saving

Question 42

Within a few weeks of the September 11 attacks, U.S. forces led an attack on

A) Pakistan
B) Iraq
C) Saudi Arabia
D) Afghanistan
E) Iran

Question 43

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina

A) devastated the Texas Gulf coast
B) caused the most deaths of any natural disaster in American history
C) destroyed much of New Orleans
D) brought an efficient response from government at all levels
E) again allowed Bush to show his leadership skills during crisis

Question 44

Osama bin Laden was all of the following EXCEPT

A) a wealthy Saudi
B) leader of al-Qaeda
C) founder and leader of the Taliban
D) a Muslim extremist
E) a fanatical enemy of the United States

Question 45

The Iraq Study Group concluded that

A) U.S. combat troops should be withdrawn from Iraq
B) President Bush was wrong in deciding to invade Iraq in the fist place
C) Iraq should be divided into semi-independent states governed by Kurds, Sunnis, and
Shiites
D) the United States should immediately cut its losses by leaving Iraq
E) as soon as Iraq was stable, the United States should invade Iran and install 2 democratic
government there.

Question 46

In the war against Iraq and Saddam Hussein, the United States was most closely supported by

A) Germany
B) France
C) Great Britain
D) Russia
E) Japan

Question 47

Bush won a second term in 2004 by defeating

A) Al Gore
B) John Edwards
C) Howard Dean
D) John Kerry
E) Hillary Clinton

Question 48

The Bush Doctrine emphasized

A) close coordination of U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations
B) preemptive military action against terrorists and terrorist regimes
C) a determination to contain terrorism by keeping it where it already existed
D) strengthening America's nuclear deterrent
E) using terrorism against terrorists

Question 49

The fight with Saddam Hussein's army

A) lasted just a few weeks
B) resulted in thousands of American deaths
C) was primarily a series of tank battles
D) was won strictly through air assaults
E) required the use of some small nuclear weapons

Question 50

As a result of the "surge" ordered in Iraq by President Bush

A) Americans once more began to support our involvement there
B) the Iraqi government became a model of democracy
C) attacks on American froops stopped
D) the war in Iraq dramatizally decreased in ifs monetary cost
E) levels of violence in Iraq declined

Question 51

Bush's stated rationale for attacking Iraq in 2003 was

A) that country's presumed threat to the United States
B) his personal hatred of Saddam Hussein
C) the need to acquire Iraq's oil
D) the desire to make Iraq a democracy
E) revenge for Iraq's involvement in the September 11 attacks

Question 52

The housing industry crash in 2007

A) affected only some reckless speculators
B) proved the virtue of free-market capitalism
C) sent bank profits soaring, given all the homes they were able to acquire through
foreclosure
D) froze credit and provoked arecession
E) had long been predicted by the Bush administration

Question 53

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, did all of the following EXCEPT

A) paralyze the United States in fear and disunity
B) kill about 3,000 people
C) include the Pentagon as a target
D) destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center
E) turn the lower end of Manhattan into a hellish scene

Question 54

By the 1990s, the most dangerous enemies of the United States became

A) the world’s remaining Communist countries such as Cuba
B) left-of-center governments in Latin America
C) neo-Nazis in Germany and eastern Europe
D) shadowy terrorist organizations
E) computer hackers and other high-tech saboteurs

Question 55

Most Americans personally encountered the war on terror at home by

A) being recruited into the military
B) having the government tap their phones
C) being exposed to biological warfare
D) being limited in their choice of reading material
E) enduring more extensive airport security and screening

Question 56

The most evident sign of the economic crisis by October 2008 was

A) plummeting stock prices
B) fuel shortages and long lines at gas stations
C) a drying up of illegal immigration
D) a large number of bankers being sent to prison
E) growing public support for socialism

Question 57

After Katrina, Bush's presidency was marked by

A) renewed confidence and vigor
B) growing public disapproval
C) a series of legislative victories
D) continued Republican unity
E) serious attempts of impeachment

Question 58

The No Child Left Behind legislation passed by Congress required

A) schools and districts to meet certain learning standards
B) teacher salaries to be dramatically increased
C) less standardized testing
D) schools to focus on teaching moral values
E) more parental involvement in the education of their children

Question 59

The issue that dominated the last couple of months of the 2008 campaign was

A) health care
B) the cconomic crisis
C) the war on terror
D) Iraq
E) illegal immigration

Question 60

The housing bubble of the early 2000s was inspired by all of the following EXCEPT

A) subprime loans
B) rising home prices
C) people purchasing homes with large down payments
D) speculative behavior
E) recovery from the 2001 recession

Question 61

In January 2009, angry activists coalesced into a decentralized nationwide protest movement soon labeled the

A) Green Party
B) Reform Party
C) New Republican Party
D) Party of Hope
E) Tea Party

Question 62

What factors might account for the Republican gains in the 1994 elections?

Question 63

Did American foreign policy change significantly when Bill Clinton became president? Fully explain.

Question 64

What factors accounted for the public's view of the Bush presidency by the time of the 2008 election?

Question 65

Detail the election of 2004. Who were the major parties, and which issues dominated this campaign?

Question 66

Discuss the issue of increasing polarization in American politics. How has President Obama tried to lessen the tension and has he been successful?

Question 67

All of the following are true of Barack Obama EXCEPT that he

A) Was a former commumity organizer
B) is biracial
C) went to Harvard Law School
D) was born in Kenya
E) was a U.S. senator from Illinois

Question 68

Briefly assess Clinton's achievements in domestic policy.

Question 69

In moving quickly on key issues and campaign pledges just after his inauguration, President Obama

A) lost much of his public support
B) worsened economic conditions
C) showed his inexperience
D) was mimicking Franklin Roosevelt
E) won the support of a good number of Republicans in Congress

Question 70

After the 2010 election, Congressional Republicans predicted that there would be no compromise on the following EXCEPT

A) stopping runaway spending
B) deficits
C) the war in Afghanistan
D) debt
E) repealing Obamacare

Question 72

Discuss the issue of global terrorism. How has this affected all aspects of American society?

Question 73

Describe the new patterns of immigration to the United States. What might account for this?

Question 74

Explain the historic victory of Barack Obama in 2008.

Question 75

Detail the election of 2000. Discuss the major candidates and issues. How was the outcome of this election ultimately decided?

Question 76

The centerpiece of President Obama's effort to restore the economy was

A) rejected by Congress
B) a huge economic stimulus package
C) immediately successful in ending the recession
D) tax cuts for the wealthy
E) noncontroversial

Question 77

Detail Operation Iraqi Freedom. Include the reasons given for the invasion and the status of the war as described in chapter 34.

Question 78

Obama won large majorities among all the following groups of voters EXCEPT

A) blacks
B) Hispanics
C) those over sixty-five
D) fist-time voters
E) those under thirty

Question 79

Discuss the devastating situation in the Gulf coast region of the United States as a result of Hurricane Katrina. How did the government respond to the crisis, and what impact did this have on the presidency of George W. Bush?

Question 80

MATCHING
Match each description with the item below.