the president broke his most memorable campaign promise. >> read my lips. no new taxes. >> reporter: convinced it was in the national interest to compromise, he agreed to a bipartisan deal, cutting spending and raising taxes. he broke a major campaign pledge and then saw the deal shot down by house conservatives. a second attempt passed, but did not stop the recession in time. bush's nomination of clarence thomas to the u.s. supreme court provoked another acrimonious fight. democrats dug up claims of sexual harassment. >> this is a circus. it's a national disgrace. and from my standpoint, as a black american, as far as i'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks. >> reporter: and bush's approval rating, an unheard of 91% by the end of the gulf war slowly eroded. the recession he could not stop ended up costing him a second