Bill Clinton presidential campaign, 1992

Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign for President of the United States was a critical turning point for the Democratic Party, which had controlled the White House for only four of the previous twenty-four years. Initially viewed as an unlikely prospect to win his party's nomination, Clinton did so and went on to defeat incumbent President George H. W. Bush, who had been viewed as politically invincible just a year earlier.

Candidate Background

Clinton was the southern governor of a traditionally conservative state, Arkansas. He had been viewed as a viable presidential candidate before his actual bid in 1992. During the 1988 Presidential Primaries, where George H. W. Bush, the incumbent Vice-President, seemed all but inevitable as the president, many turned to Clinton as the next southern leader of the party. Bill Clinton was seen as a potential candidate as he was a popular Democratic governor in Republican territory.

Timeline

Primaries

The candidates in 1992 were considered one of the weakest starting grids the Democrats had ever chosen. Most of this was due to President George H.W. Bush's sky-high approval ratings in the wake of Operation Desert Storm. The press anointed front-runners for 1992 included Bill Bradley, then a New Jersey Senator, Jesse Jackson, who finished second in 1988, Dick Gephardt, Al Gore, and Jay Rockefeller, a Senator from West Virginia. But each bowed out early. Neither Bradley nor Rockefeller considered themselves ready to run, Gephardt seemed to...
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