Bill Clinton's private life

After four years in power, George Herbert Walker Bush, the hero of the Pacific War, seemed unbeatable for the 1992 presidential election. It was without counting the emergence of a Democratic candidate for the centrist political line and in the air of the time: Bill Clinton. In the ninth episode of the podcast Mister President by Europe 1 Studio, Olivier Duhamel looks back on the "Clintonian" years, as moderate as tormented.

This podcast is produced in partnership with the Institut Montaigne

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After the 80s, the Reagan years, here is the time of the 90s, the Clintonian years. In this episode, two elections: the unexpected one of 1992, the more planned one of 1996. At the beginning, George Herbert Walker Bush, the outgoing president, the hero of the war of the Pacific, the reasonable patrician seems unbeatable. First, because an outgoing person is more often re-elected than the reverse. Especially because after the brilliant victory of the coalition that he led in the 1991 Gulf War, his popularity reached peaks, 89%. 

The Democrat favorites are therefore not candidates, neither the very popular governor of New York State, Mario Cuomo, nor the black pastor Jesse Jackson. No more Al Gore, whose son is struggling to recover from a serious car accident. Eight lesser-known candidates get into the race, five of whom emerge at the start Bob Kerrey, that of Iowa Tom Harkin, the ex-senator of Massachusetts Paul Tsongas and the governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. 

The rise of Bill Clinton

From his birth name, on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arizona, William Jefferson Blythe. But his parent died three months before his birth. Her mother left to study nursing in New Orleans and entrusted her, for four years, to her parents. Upon her return, she married Robert Clinton, who adopted little William, says Bill. After considering a career as a saxophonist, he studied brilliantly at the universities of Georgetown, Oxford, then Yale where he met and married Hillary. They will never leave each other. She will never leave him.

And yet Bill Clinton almost had to give up when at the end of January a certain Gennifer Flowers revealed to the press that she had an affair with him. Clinton is doing well, thanks to his wife Hillary, who appears alongside him in the famous television show "Sixty minutes", "Sixty minutes".

Harkin wins the first victory, but at home in Iowa. Tsongas wins the second, near his home in New Hampshire. Clinton surprised there, coming second. And attracts attention by calling himself "Come Back Kid" "The guy who returns". Each of the candidates wins one or two primaries here or there. Until Super Tuesday of March 10, 1992, this famous day often decisive because the primaries take place simultaneously in a large number of states. Clinton wins. Its centrist positioning with its "New Democrat" line corresponds to the spirit of the times. But the Californian Brown catches up with him, until he blunders, just before the primary capital of New York. He announces that if he is nominated, he will take on Jesse Jackson as vice-president candidate. The Jewish electorate does not appreciate, it suspects the pastor of anti-Semitism. Clinton won massively in New York, and then, narrowly, in Wisconsin. He then went on to win, including California. The case is folded. The Convention held in early July in New York made him a triumph in the first round.

Attacks on privacy

Bill Clinton chooses Al Gore for vice president. The campaign for the election begins. George HW Bush met on his way only right-hander Pat Buchanan, a television columnist, who weakened him at first. But Bush largely beat him Buchanan in all the primaries. A third candidate disrupts bipartisanship. The billionaire Ross Perot presents himself as independent on a protectionist line. The first polls are very favorable to him.

In June, it collected 39% of voting intentions against 31% for Bush and 25% for Clinton. But in July, he withdrew from the race, explaining that Republicans wanted to disrupt his daughter's marriage. Quite discredited, he returns there in September. The Republican team is delighted, thinking that this will especially harm Clinton. Perot takes part in the three presidential debates, which allows him to regain credit and voters. Questions and attacks on privacy take an unprecedented place in the campaign. We saw that very early Clinton was accused of adultery. In August, Bush was arrested on the subject.

The Republicans blame Clinton on what the Americans call the character issue, literally "the problem of character", in other words, the person. Accused of smoking marijuana, he replied that he pretended, and did not swallow. The Gennifer Flowers case comes out. He denies having had an affair with her. Clinton continues to campaign on the economic front. The economy is not in excellent health, and Bush has not honored his commitments not to raise taxes. With and beyond the economy, Clinton applied the so-called triangulation strategy, that is to say the resumption of themes of the adversaries. Clinton recalls that he is in favor of the death penalty. He is in favor of compulsory uniforms in public schools. Another important element in the campaign is the involvement of the stars. Especially for Clinton.

Despite personal attacks, Clinton largely prevailed. Clinton 43%, Bush 37%, Perrot 19%. Political science analyzes will later show that Perot took as many votes from Clinton as from Bush. It was not the existence of a third candidate that made the election. This is Clinton's good campaign, and the thirst for renewal among the "baby boomers" he embodied.

Lesson # 16: Personal attacks play an important role in the campaign. But it is possible to overcome them. Clinton proved it by recovering from the charges of adultery and winning the election. In France, nobody looked for François Mitterrand in campaign on his double life. 

Lesson # 17: A good campaign theme contributes to victory. "It's the Economy stupid", while sticking to it, Clinton defeated Bush in 1992. Chirac did the same in 1995 with his denunciation of "the social divide".

Clinton vs Dole

Elected in 1992, will Clinton be re-elected in 1996? The growth is good. Clinton lowered taxes for the middle classes. The country feels good. The Republicans have certainly won the majority in the two chambers, that of the Representatives and the Senate. But the Americans readily accept what they call "divided government": one of the two parties is the executive, the other is the legislative. Clinton's re-election seems secure. His candidacy is not really disputed, all caucuses, all primaries designate him and the Democratic Convention ratifies this unanimity.

It is different with the Republicans. Several potential candidates therefore give up immediately: General Colin Powell, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, the former Secretary of State, that is to say Minister of Foreign Affairs, James Baker. Despite this, others are launching in numbers in the nomination contest. As always during a presidential election, some overestimate their chances, others say that it is a good opportunity to make themselves known, an increase in notoriety being promising for future positions, and, who knows, compete with more chances in the future. Three candidates stood out before the start of the primaries: the conservative Pat Buchanan, the unexpected director of an economic magazine bearing his name, Forbes, and the senator from Kansas, leader of the Republican majority, Robert Dole. Buchanan wins the New Hampshire primary to everyone's surprise. The moderates then regroup behind Bob Dole, who suddenly eliminates his rivals before being invested without difficulty during the Republican Convention in mid-August. 

Dole is handicapped by his age, 73, compared to the 50 years of the outgoing president. To make matters worse, he fell during a meeting in California. Clinton's team does not directly attack their opponent over age. More subtly, she spreads slogans like "Building bridges to the future", "Building bridges to the future". Clinton himself calls into question "ideas from the past". He describes Dole as a clone of Newt Gingrich, the very right-wing and unpopular Republican House leader who would cut social programs like Medicare.

Clinton easily re-elected

Another controversy arises in the campaign, questioning the illegal intervention of the Chinese embassy in raising funds for the Clinton campaign. But nothing helps. Clinton continues to lead the race. The independent Perot, again a candidate, is excluded from the debates and does not take off. Dole fails to catch up. Clinton was easily re-elected with 49% of popular votes, 40% for Dole, 8% for Perot. The Democrat won in the West, the eastern part of Mid-West, the East and Florida which gives him the votes of 379 voters against 159 in the Republican Dole. The 90s thus began with the moderate presidency of the Republican George Bush father, they will end with the moderate presidency, albeit a tormented time, of the democrat Bill Clinton.

What lesson can we learn from the re-election of Clinton, or more precisely from the defeat of his rival Dole?

Lesson 18: Age can be a handicap. Bob Dole, Clinton's Republican challenger, suffered it in 1996. De Gaulle hardly suffered this criticism in 1965, despite posters asking if one would entrust his affairs to a 75-year-old grandfather. 

The era of moderates will succeed that of deregulation, as we will see in the ninth episode of the extraordinary history of the American presidential elections.

"Mister President by Europe 1 Studio" is a podcast imagined by Olivier Duhamel

Preparation: Capucine Patouillet
Production: Christophe Daviaud (with Matthieu Blaise)

Editorial project manager: Fannie Rascle
Distribution and editing: Clémence Olivier
Graphic design: Mikaël Reichardt
Archives: European 1 sound heritage with Benoît Delaporte (January 28, 1992, July 14, 1992, February 19, 1992, May 17, 1992 and August 12, 1992), Pascale Clark (November 2, 1992)