The Clinton/Gore campaign website from 1996 is still online and it is glorious

By Fusion Staff  |  September 9, 2015 | 1:01pm
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Five years ago, a reddit user discovered that the website to the Looney Tunes movie where Michael Jordan plays basketball against cartoons was still live and functional.

Thanks to Mashable, we now know that more artifacts of 1990s web design and culture have survived: the campaign websites of various presidential candidates.

Take for instance, the website of Bill Clinton/Al Gore’s 1996 campaign. The modem next to President Clinton is flashing, btw.

Clicking around, you can visit The Briefing Room, where you can find the President’s stance on immigration, the war on drugs, and religious freedom.

There’s also an electoral college “game” that cannot run on this non-1996 computer because the site works best on Windows 95.

Are you in the market for a new poster? The Clinton/Gore ’96 website has you covered thanks to the work of Carolyn M. Gravlin.

People on the web were invited to get on the 21st Century Express, the campaign’s train, as it made its way to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Or you could volunteer to work for the campaign.

But you’re going to have to wake up pretty early if you want to become the next Volunteer of the Week.

According to the site, the Iowa office would be lost without Billie Jean Houck, a retired school teacher who volunteered four days a week on the campaign. Why was she so willing to donate her time and energy? “She feels that the President is doing a good job on the issues that matter most — education, health care, taxes and crime.”

Did someone say screen savers?

Take a moment to download and view the Grassroots Action Kit and start creating DIY campaign materials.

Me? I’m going to print out some new bumper stickers.

The website is worth visiting for the early GIFs that pop up when your cursor hovers over some text on the homepage and there are even more gems of early web design that both the policy wonks and the Silicon Valley crowd can get a kick out of. Then go ahead and peruse Mashable to check out even more of these blasts from the past.

David Matthews operates the Wayback Machine on Fusion.net—hop on. Got a tip? Email him: [email protected]

 
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