time and he understood what sacrifice he was making and went along with a number of legislative initiatives that he knew were going to be costly to his base, and it was with great sadness and regret that he was defeated by a new generation, by the baby boomers bill clinton and al gore and it was really a passing of the torch. he was the last world war ii veteran, you know, that served in that war to be elected president of the united states. i do remember a moment in june of 1992 at a white house press conference and a reporter from usa today got up and said mr. president, why do you want a second term? he said, you know, bar and i were sitting at breakfast this morning and wondering the same thing and i guess, i m paraphrasing, my mother always told me finish what you start.
clinton at the same time taking control of a democratic party that hadn t just been losing national elections but was getting blown out. walter mondale loses 49 states. bill clinton comes along in 1992 and once he gets the democratic nomination in june of 1992 is this sister soldier moment. it was sister soldier, a rap who are said in the wake of the l.a. riots she gave an interview. when she talked about the idea of what about if we just had a day when we killed white people? that was her comment. she said there was more context but bill clinton took it. soldier was part of the rainbow coalition convention and bill county called her out in front of the convention. sparked a week long public war with jesse jackson. was one of the ways when you look at bill clinton straddling the cultural divide, he won white liberals in 92 and the black vote, but he reached out
but for the wrong reasons. she knew the impact that picture was going to have. she was publicly documenting her sort of kiss-off to charles? she was. soon after, the world got the real story behind the pictures. the whole messy saga of charles and diana s 11-year marriage. in june of 1992 her explosive sprues were published in andrew morton s groundbreaking book. diana s public disclosure was a bombshell that rocked the monarchy. at the time, no internet, no social media. the main source of news came from newspapers, and here in london where there are several dailies and tabloids, diana s troubled marriage made for blaring headlines. bulimic, trapped in a loveless marriage. serious bouts of depression. princess diana broke down in tears. slashed her wrists. there had never been anything like it in the history of the
moines register. ross perot after the 92 campaign pretty much faded from view. at one point he was leading the polls in june of 1992. he was ahead of bush 41 and bill clinton. but eventually he did fade in the polls. what is the virtue of having ross perot appealing to iowa voters? is this the deficit hawk and tea party support. i think there s a very big sliver of voters out there that are anxious about the direction of the country as it relates to spending and deficits and bringing reform and bringing a new sensibility to washington. we haven t seen that for the last four years. ross perot i think speaks to a lot of those voters. i don t want to make too much of endorsements but it does say something about this the voters out there who care about those issues that governor romney does have that type of support. the independent swing voters that many years ago looked at somebody like perot who could bring a change to washington, i think they see the same in governor romney right
really comparable. clinton at this stage in 1992, i know he had higher negatives than romney does and there s a sense that romney can win and all that and i think romney will win but i don t think that stat helps you much. because in april of 1993 or 1992, clinton had just survived the gennifer flowers scandal and just survived the draft scandal and was at a very tenuous point in the presidency. in fact, by june of 1992, clinton was running third in the polls behind bush in first and perot in second. it wasn t until his convention in july that he bounced into second place and then took the lead later in the summer. so i don t think they re really comparable because romney has had his problems but not like that. but he is underwater. he is unfavorable, favorable.