At the close of the decade of the 1990's, and the end of the twentieth century, as well as the close of a millennium; came a presidential campaign between two candidates that were so near alike in many ways, that the campaign went into political overtime. The quest to become the first elected president of the twenty first century was between sitting Vice President Al Gore Jr., a Democrat, and the sitting Governor of Texas George W. Bush a Republican. In the beginning of the campaign season neither candidate appeared to be dominant. Even the presidential debates held between the two candidates did nothing to allow one to pull away from the other in the polls.