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Bush was widely blamed for a downturn in the economy that did not actually happen.<ref> After the election, economic numbers came out showing that the recession had actually ended before the election, but the public did not have this information when they voted.

Bush was widely blamed for a downturn in the economy that did not actually happen.<ref> After the election, economic numbers came out showing that the recession had actually ended before the election, but the public did not have this information when they voted.

</ref> Worse, he was blamed 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. He damaged the Bush campaign by asserting that the economy was worse then 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. He damaged the Bush campaign by asserting that the economy was worse then it was and giving disenchanted voters who didn't want to support Clinton a protest vote.