The Presidential Election of 1992

The Presidential Election of 1992

In 1992 the incumbent president George Bush was seeking reelection. It was the general consensus that he would be the 'hands down, no contest winner'. When the smoke had cleared and the votes were tallied, many were shocked at the results. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton had defeated the incumbent by a landslide! How could this be? How did the commander and chief of what could be considered the greatest victory in modern American history defeat the Iraqi army and one year later lose the election for the presidency? The answers to these questions as well as explanations for the outcome lie within the campaign strategies and tactics used by each candidate. There were various major political events and public opinion data that occurred throughout the general election stage of the campaign. This paper will analyze both the political events and the public opinion data, in hopes of developing a better understanding as to what helped shape the overall outcome. There were three candidates in the race for the presidency, President Bush (R), Bill Clinton (D), and Ross Perot (I). Each of the three, to a greater or lesser extent, focused their campaign on the economy. President Bush focused more of his campaign on criticizing his opponents primarily Bill Clinton. He would often compare the economy to that of other nations, claiming it wasn't all that bad and resumed attacking his opponents. Bill Clinton on the other hand focused his campaign strategy on implementing the need for 'change.' At that time the national debt and unemployment was rising. Clinton vowed to improve the economy and the quality of life for the American people by bringing about change. Ross Perot was more of a crusader against Washin...

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...al infidelity and draft dodging. American voter wanted someone that would directly benefit them and they found it in Clinton. We see a lot of similarities in today's campaign for the presidency. Currently Al Gore vows to keep the economy running strong. He is determined to keep George W. Bush from messing up what he has helped create in the last eight years. So again we are seeing the issue of the economy. We have also seen some negative ad campaigning by Gore. He released two ads that were aired prior to the start of the Republican National Convention. The ads accused Bush of restricting health care to children and allowing Texas to become the smog capital. It will be very interesting to see how each candidate performs in the debates. Nonetheless, the 1992 election provides some valuable lessons in campaign strategy, which both Gore and Bush may want to consider.