THE 1992 ELECTION

George Bush and Bill Clinton ran against each other in 1992. The buzzword of politics in 1992 was “change,” and both candidates claimed they were prepared to offer it. At the 1992 Republican National Convention speakers of the New Right spoke about the need for “'family values” and that a “religious war” against the Democrats was needed.

The former governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton had the political sense to realize that Americans in the early 1990s were interested in economic rather than social issues, and pledged that as president he would overhaul the health care system and work for the preservation of the Social Security system. Clinton campaigned as a “New Democrat.” stating that he was not another typical big-spending advocate of big government. During his presidency Clinton on occasion took Republican concepts and claimed them as his own; right-wing critics such as Rush Limbaugh maintained that he would say or do anything if it meant his position would be improved in the polls.

In the 1990s politicians were under more intense scrutiny than ever. Twenty-four-hour cable news networks needed a continuous input of news; political Web sites and talk radio hosts offered up mountains of political information (with no real need to prove any of it). Bill Clinton was a special target of the conservative press during the 1992 campaign and throughout his presidency; he was the first baby boomer president and had taken part in antiwar demonstrations while he was a graduate student in England. Many also resented his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who maintained that if her husband was elected, she would not sit around the White House and “bake cookies.”

A third candidate in the 1992 race was Texas multibillionaire Ross Perot. Perot spent a lot of money on campaign ads, complaining in these ads about how the politicians in Washington were beholden only to special interests, and that if elected he would bring “common sense” back to the White House. However, the charts depicting the American economy that he used on his advertisements were understood by few people.

Clinton won the 1992 election fairly easily. Many from the New Deal Democratic coalition that had deserted the Democrats for Reagan came back to vote for Clinton in 1992. Bush appeared oddly out of touch at several points during the campaign; at one point he was caught looking at his watch in the middle of a presidential debate. Nearly 19 million Americans supported Perot; analysts maintain that the support for Perot hurt Bush more than it did Clinton.