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Bush enjoyed historically high approval ratings after his decisive military victory in [[Operation Desert Storm]] in 1991, but that had evaporated by the time of the election. Ironically, the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] and collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] under Bush's Presidency hurt him in his reelection campaign in that it resulted in foreign policy not being a prominent issue, with no Soviet threat. The campaign focused almost entirely on domestic concerns and an economy that was believed to still be in a recession.

Bush enjoyed historically high approval ratings after his decisive military victory in [[Operation Desert Storm]] in 1991, but that had evaporated by the time of the election. Ironically, the fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] and collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] under Bush's Presidency hurt him in his reelection campaign in that it resulted in foreign policy not being a prominent issue, with no Soviet threat. The campaign focused almost entirely on domestic concerns and an economy that was believed to still be in a recession.

A prominently placed sign in Clinton’s campaign headquarters read "It’s the economy, stupid!" Bill Clinton ran a different, more youthful campaign, by making frequent appearances on MTV and daytime talk-shows, and took questions from live [[audience]]s, which proved to be a comfortable setting for him. He distanced himself from past Democratic Party candidates like [[George McGovern]], [[Walter Mondale]] and [[Michael Dukakis]], by running as a centrist. He cited the ticket’s support of the [[death penalty]], a balanced budget, middle class [[tax]] cuts and a desire to "end [[welfare]] as we know it."  Clinton had baggage of avoiding the [[Vietnam War]], illegally failing to report for the draft, and past drug use, but the [[mainstream media]] didn't push those themes.

A prominently placed sign in Clinton's campaign headquarters read "It’s the economy, stupid!" Bill Clinton ran a different, more youthful campaign, by making frequent appearances on MTV and daytime talk-shows, and took questions from live [[audience]]s, which proved to be a comfortable setting for him. He distanced himself from past Democratic Party candidates like [[George McGovern]], [[Walter Mondale]] and [[Michael Dukakis]], by running as a centrist. He cited the ticket's support of the [[death penalty]], a balanced budget, middle class [[tax]] cuts and a desire to "end [[welfare]] as we know it."  Clinton had baggage of avoiding the [[Vietnam War]], illegally failing to report for the draft, and past drug use, but the [[mainstream media]] didn't push those themes.

According to Wikipedia, Bill Clinton engaged in [[voter suppression]] by appearing at several Massachusetts polling locations, which caused voters hours of delay and inhibited traffic.<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2016/03/01/did-bill-clinton-violate-election-rules-venturing-into-polling-location/PH4FIH9jCKYKf6Fzyvfz2N/story.html</ref> Clinton was allegedly electioneering within 150 feet of the polling locations, which is also illegal according to Massachusetts state law.<ref>http://www.medfordma.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ELECTIONSummary.pdf</ref>

According to Wikipedia, Bill Clinton engaged in [[voter suppression]] by appearing at several Massachusetts polling locations, which caused voters hours of delay and inhibited traffic.<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2016/03/01/did-bill-clinton-violate-election-rules-venturing-into-polling-location/PH4FIH9jCKYKf6Fzyvfz2N/story.html</ref> Clinton was allegedly electioneering within 150 feet of the polling locations, which is also illegal according to Massachusetts state law.<ref>http://www.medfordma.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ELECTIONSummary.pdf</ref>

</ref> Worse, he was held responsible by conservative voters for reneging on his pledge, "Read my lips—no new taxes". He agreed to a major tax hike. More moderate and less charismatic than Reagan, Bush had no personal following could do little to find an issue to energize his party or the American people.  In the debates he stressed the idea of the American people giving him a Republican Congress to work with, which at the time seemed out of touch as the Democrats enjoyed large leads in both the House and the Senate.  His campaign never caught fire.  Attempts to paint Clinton as a tax-and-spend liberal governor with no foreign policy experience didn't resonate. Bush never found a way to deal with Perot.

</ref> Worse, he was held responsible by conservative voters for reneging on his pledge, "Read my lips—no new taxes". He agreed to a major tax hike. More moderate and less charismatic than Reagan, Bush had no personal following could do little to find an issue to energize his party or the American people.  In the debates he stressed the idea of the American people giving him a Republican Congress to work with, which at the time seemed out of touch as the Democrats enjoyed large leads in both the House and the Senate.  His campaign never caught fire.  Attempts to paint Clinton as a tax-and-spend liberal governor with no foreign policy experience didn't resonate. Bush never found a way to deal with Perot.

In Ross Perot’s surprisingly strong third-party campaign he ran as a crusading expert—a successful businessman—who was qualified to fix the economy and the huge federal budget deficits. Perot argued that deficits were a kind of corruption, and represented a failure that could no longer be tolerated. He damaged the Bush campaign by asserting that the economy was worse than it was and giving disenchanted voters who didn't want to support Clinton a protest vote.

In Ross Perot's surprisingly strong third-party campaign he ran as a crusading expert—a successful businessman—who was qualified to fix the economy and the huge federal budget deficits. Perot argued that deficits were a kind of corruption, and represented a failure that could no longer be tolerated. He damaged the Bush campaign by asserting that the economy was worse than it was and giving disenchanted voters who didn't want to support Clinton a protest vote.

==Results==

==Results==