306 a short history of the united states
conservative base. It was such a flagrant disregard of a campaign prom-
ise that it cost him dearly when he stood for reelection.
Bush’s success in building a coali tion that drove Saddam Hussein
from Kuwait was the high point of his administration. Unquestionably,
this successful war discouraged many of the leading Democratic candi-
dates from challenging his bid for a second term. But a relative unknown,
Governor William Jefferson Clinton of Arkansas, decided to go for it;
and after a series of hard-fought primaries in which his sexual affairs and
draft evasion received widespread attention, he managed to win the
nomination at the convention held in New York from July 13 to 16 , 1992.
He chose Senator Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee to run with him.
Bush and Quayle again headed the Republican ticket, chosen in Hous-
ton on August 20 ; but they ran a dispirited race against an opponent
whose several bus trips around the country displayed an energy and
youthfulness that offered the electorate a sharp and favorable contrast
in style and manner. But the faltering economy more than anything
else played the decisive role in this election. At Clinton’s headquarters
a brief but effective sign emphasized this issue. It read, “It’s the econ-
omy, stupid.”
Concern over the economy produced a third candidate, H. Ross
Perot, a Texan billionaire. He was particularly concerned about the size
of the federal budget. At one point he withdrew from the campaign but
then turned around and reentered it. The three men held three tele-
vised debates—a practice that had begun with Kennedy and Nixon in
1960 —and in one of them Bush was seen looking at his watch, obvi-
ously concerned about ending what was to him an endurance contest.
Perot did well in the debates, boasting that he had never held public
office and that he could not be blamed for running up a huge govern-
ment defi cit.
The final result came as a surprise to Bush. He, a family man and a
wartime hero, had been defeated by a womanizer and draft dodger. It
was a shock. And this election attracted 55 percent of the voting popu-
lation, the largest in over twenty years. Clinton garnered 44 , 908 , 254
popular and 370 electoral votes to Bush’s 39 , 102 , 343 popular and 168
electoral votes. Perot received no electoral votes, but he did attract
19 , 741 , 065 popular votes. Not since Theodore Roo sevelt’s Bull Moose
candidacy in 1912 had a third-party candidate done as well as Perot.