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A look at the aftermath of the 1996 national elections.

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JIM LEHRER: After a night of projections and estimates, the real numbers of President Clinton's re-election came in today with 99 percent of the nation's nearly 189,000 precincts reporting; the President had 45.6 million votes, 49 percent of the popular vote. Bob Dole won 37.8 million, 41 percent, Ross Perot 7.8 million, or 8 percent. The remaining 2 percent went to a variety of small party candidates. The popular vote translated into a huge victory for the President in the electoral college. He won 31 states in the District of Columbia, for 379 electoral votes. Dole's 19 states gave him 159 electoral votes. President Clinton returned to Washington from Little Rock this afternoon. At a victory rally on the South Lawn of the White House, the Clintons and the Gores greeted hundreds of cheering employees. Mr. Clinton spoke to them after a spirited introduction by Vice President Gore

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: I said last night in presenting the President at the victory celebration that he is now on a very short list of history with the other Democratic Presidents who have been elected to two terms, and it is, indeed, quite an extraordinary list: Thomas Jefferson--James Madison--James Monroe--Andrew Jackson--Woodrow Wilson--Franklin Delano Roosevelt--and now William Jefferson Clinton. (applause) Last evening, modesty prevented me from listing the Democratic Vice Presidents who've been re-elected. (laughter among audience) But now my name--Al Gore--will be added to a list that includes Thomas Marshall--Daniel Thompkins--John Garner--and George Clinton. Hey, let's hear it for George Clinton. Come on! (applause) He was the first. So from George Clinton--from Clinton to Gore. It's great to be able to--oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no--no, no, no, no, no, no--(crowd cheering)--no, no. You misunderstand me. George Clinton 1805 to 1812 from New York, first Democratic Vice President to be elected. The other, I assure you, was just a slip of the tongue. (laughter among audience)

PRESIDENT CLINTON: I really appreciate that lesson in history from the Vice President. (laughter among audience) I'll tell you one thing. You remember what John Nance Garner said about the Vice Presidency--said it wasn't worth a worm--a kettle of spit or something like that. That's before Al Gore got ahold of it. Nobody will ever say that again--ever--ever, ever say that again. (applause) Last night, I had a chance to--to do something really quite wonderful for me. I was able to have a meeting with--when I was home in Arkansas--with everybody who ever worked for me there, at least we invited them all, the people who worked for me 20 years ago, when I was attorney general, the people who worked for me during all my five terms as governor. And I told them something I want to tell you that is I have always been a very hard working, kind of hard driving person. I'm always focused on the matter before me. Sometimes I don't say thank you enough. And, uh, I've always been kind of hard on myself, and sometimes I think just by omission I'm too hard on the people who work here. And I just want you to know--all of you--from the cabinet to the staff--to the appointees--to all the others who are here--you should be very proud of this. This is not--(applause)--the--(applause)--this race was won because of the record we made and because of the plans we have and because we have established in the minds of the American people that it's more than talk with us, that we work at it hard every day, all of us. We work hard. And in the end, that's what sustained us--a vision, a strategy, hard work, and success. Two years ago, not many people thought we would be here, but I believe if we just kept doing the right things, kept trying to do ‘em in the right way, and kept working hard and refused to be distracted by the things which dominate too much of our public life today, in the end, the American people will render the right judgment. I am profoundly grateful for what they did last night and very, very grateful to all of you for making it possible. Thank you and God bless you. (applause)

JIM LEHRER: In contrast to the celebrating at the White House, Bob Dole left his Watergate apartment this morning and spent the day at his campaign headquarters in downtown Washington. He was expected to fly to his oceanfront condominium in Florida for several days. There was a rush of leaked stories today about departures from the Clinton cabinet. Secretary of State Christopher, Defense Sec. Perry, Energy Sec. Hazel O'Leary, and Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor were among those mentioned in wire service source stories. The President told reporters he would hold a news conference in a few days to discuss cabinet changes. It was believed going in that the election would have a big impact on the new Congress but it did not. Kwame Holman reports.

KWAME HOLMAN: When the new 105th Congress convenes in January, almost all of the members who wanted to will return to Capitol Hill. Republican Senator Larry Pressler, however, is one of the exceptions. The three-term incumbent from South Dakota, chairman of the Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, lost a tight race to Democratic Congressman Tim Johnson. But Pressler was the only Senate incumbent to lose his re-election bid, and in the House, there were far fewer incumbent casualties than occurred in 1994's Republican Revolution.

SPOKESMAN: The first was to address my words--

KWAME HOLMAN: Among the most notable casualties were ten-term Democrat Harold Volkmer from Missouri, three-term Democrat Bill Orton from Utah, three-term Republican Gary Franks from Connecticut, and two-term Ohio Republican Martin Hoke. Conservative firebrand Robert Dornan of California still doesn't know if he'll be back. Dornan currently leads Democratic challenger Loretta Sanchez by a few hundred votes, making a recount likely. Most House Republican freshmen targeted for defeat, particularly by the AFL-CIO, nevertheless, survived. Congressional Republican Campaign Chairman Bill Paxon stressed that point at his post-election press briefing this morning.

REP. BILL PAXON, Chair, GOP Congressional Committee: As we look down the list, again and again and again, at those folks who are targeted with the biggest expenditures by organized labor, people like John Ensen in Nevada, people like John Christiansen in Nebraska, people like Phil English in Eerie, Pennsylvania, or Frank Riggs, and they came through with flying colors. I think the message is very clear, that politics of scare and fear and negativism do not work in American politics.

KWAME HOLMAN: But among those Republican freshmen who didn't survive were Andrea Seastrand of California and Dick Chrysler of Michigan. Runoff elections will be required in December to decide three Texas seats. Still, it's clear House Republicans will return in January with their majority intact, though likely slimmed down to 227 seats to the Democrats' 207 and 1 independent. That's a nine-seat swing in the Democrats' favor, less than they'd hoped for but an important shift, according to Democratic Congressional Campaign Chairman Martin Frost.

REP. MARTIN FROST, Chair, Democratic Congressional Committee: Again, we would have preferred to have won, to have won control, but we made a very strong showing, and I think it demonstrates a couple of things: one, that you're going to have to have real bipartisan cooperation during this next session of Congress in the House if you're going to achieve anything because the balance will be so close, uh, and particularly with a Democratic President. And I hope that you will have bipartisan cooperation. And it also, I think, demonstrates that the House is very much in play. This is something that I've been saying for the last two years; that for the remainder of this decade, the House is going to be in play every single election.

KWAME HOLMAN: Senate Republicans actually made add two seats to their current majority and hold a 55/45 advantage over Democrats come January. But that's dependent on a victory in the still too-close-call Senate race in Oregon. Republican State Senator Gordon Smith and Democrat Tom Bruggere are locked in a struggle to succeed retiring Republican Mark Hatfield, and it appears a count of absentee ballots later this week will decide the outcome. Senate Republicans held on to their majority thanks to Southern victories by Strom Thurmond in South Carolina, and Jesse Helms in North Carolina.

SPOKESMAN: As I saw Dan Rather trying to avoid a--

KWAME HOLMAN: Republicans also captured previously Democratic seats in Arkansas, where Congressman Tim Hutchinson succeeds retiring David Pryor and in Alabama, where Jeff Sessions succeeds retiring Howell Heflin. It could have been worse for Democrats in the South, but Max Cleland, the former head of the Veterans Administration, won the Georgia seat vacated by Sam Nunn. And Mary Landrew took the Louisiana seat of retiring Bennett Johnston. Farther North, the New Jersey Senate seat vacated by Bill Bradley was won by Democratic Congressman Robert Torricelli, while House colleague Richard Durbin will succeed retiring Democrat Paul Simon in Illinois. And in the hard-fought and high-profile Massachusetts Senate race, Democratic incumbent John Kerry had a relatively easy time defeating popular Republican Governor William Weld.

SEN. JOHN KERRY: As the Grateful Dead--as the Grateful Dead sang and wrote "what a long strange trip this has been."

KWAME HOLMAN: Even though the new Congress will look much like the old one, today's Senate leader Trent Lott said Republicans will take a different approach in dealing with the White House.

SEN. TRENT LOTT, Majority Leader: Again, we have certain responsibilities as a majority to sort of have our agenda and have a schedule of when we will do things, but I think, uh, the President is sort of entitled to the first at bat. You know, we're not going to rush out there January the 8th and start trying to pass X number of bills in the first hundred days. Let's see what he has to say and see what he proposes. We will consider that, and, uh, where we can, we're going to--we're going to work with him, and if we don't like what he does, or we feel like it's--it's--you know, it's smoke and mirrors, or we don't feel like he addresses some of the serious problems adequately, then we'll do more.

KWAME HOLMAN: Republicans expect to get their first firm indication of where President Clinton wants to go from his inaugural address after the 105th Congress is in session.

MR. LEHRER: The Republican and Democratic Party chairman had a cordial post-election encounter at the National Press Club in Washington today. Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Democratic Party, used the opportunity to announce he would be resigning his party post in January. He and Republican Chairman Haley Barbour talked and took questions about the future.

SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD, Chair, Democratic National Committee: So I think, frankly, the party's moving in the right direction. We're back, certainly more vibrant, more strong, more focused, uh, with good ideas, and certainly that was reflected by their excellent race that was run by the President and the Vice President over these past number of months. Now, let me mention an area, as well, that is of some concern--and I know Haley is--of course--will have a response to this when he has the microphone, but I'm going to reiterate the offer that I made the other day here, and that is that we voluntarily--since Bob Dole and the President both have committed themselves to eliminating any contributions of from non-U.S. citizens, uh, and of soft money, that I would make that offer again here today, that we ought to be able to do this. We could wait and change the law and go through an extensive debate--and there will be one on other issues of campaign finance reform that will be contentious and need to be worked out. But if there is agreement between the two parties that we ought to stop contributions from non-U.S. citizens and that we ought to end soft money, then it seems to me the two major parties in this country ought to be able to make that commitment to each other and to the American public and then work out the details of how you'd do it, if you want, over the next few weeks or month, so that it can be accomplished.

HALEY BARBOUR, Chair, Republican National Committee: It's clear we've had a mixed election in the century--elected a Democrat President--the first Democrat to be re-elected President since Roosevelt, the third President in our country's history to be elected twice without ever getting a majority, which is the case here. We've elected a Republican Congress, and it is incumbent on us and I think the outlook for this Congress is this--you start off with the understanding that the 104th Congress that just ended was a--was an active, productive, common sense reform Congress, with an outstanding record of achievement. The 105th Congress will be focused on solving the real problems that face America, including Medicare. And Medicare is going to be tougher now than it would have been because the American people have been subjected to tens of millions of dollars of negative, often false advertising as part of the union's lie Mediscare campaign. It's going to be harder, but the Republicans are not going to let Medicare go bankrupt, and I believe that Bill Clinton's not either, and we're going to have to solve this problem. You will see the Republicans dedicated to solving problems. At the same time, in closing, I have to say, the revelations during the campaign Chris talked about, along with the existing investigations of misconduct, are serious. And they must be taken seriously and acted on in a serious, fair, impartial, thorough way.

SPOKESPERSON: To Mr. Barbour, how do Republicans expect to work with a President at the same time they are trying to indict him?

HALEY BARBOUR: The power to indict lies exclusively with prosecutors, federal prosecutors, United States Attorney, special prosecutors. The Republican majority in Congress has no power to indict.

SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD: I would endorse that comment. That's a decision for--for obviously the people who are looking at these issues to make. I think, again, we're rushing to independent counsels and special prosecutors. As I said earlier, it was one thing when we--when we used to have differences of opinion. Then we began to politicize our differences. Now I'm fearful we're criminalizing our differences in this country. We've got to stop this. So that every time--facetiously teasing my friend, Haley--but for someone who's as strong supporter as I am of tort reform, it seems that everything that happened this fall there was a lawsuit being filed on it, and we've got to get away from that, it seems to me.

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