Newstradamus

"Mr. Change" of 1992

Today's anticipated visit by Bill Clinton to Eureka gave me a 16-year flashback to the presidential campaign of 1992, when Clinton — that year's Barack Obama — came to Sioux Falls, S.D., where I was editor of the Argus Leader.

Back then, that state's primary was still significant because it was in February at a time before so many states had moved theirs to early in the year. (Not much else to do in South Dakota in the winter.)

You may recall that Clinton took a beating that year in the Iowa caucuses, then came in second in New Hampshire and called himself "The Comeback Kid."

But there were still plenty of rival Democrats in the race — because Clinton had not fully recovered from the Gennifer Flowers scandal, despite Hillary holding his hand on "60 Minutes" — and they all headed to South Dakota. The one who really was under the gun to win was Bob Kerrey, former governor of neighboring Nebraska. But Massachusetts' Paul Tsongas still had a chance, as did California's Jerry Brown.

I never got to meet Clinton, but Brown, Tsongas and Kerrey sat down with the Argus Leader Editorial Board. If memory serves, Clinton spoke at the local college or something. He rarely spoke to newspaper editorial boards, except maybe the New York Times. (I suspect he won't be stopping by the Times-Standard, either.)

The newspaper ended up endorsing Tsongas, but Kerrey won the primary. Not that it made any difference. Clinton soon was on a roll, sweeping Super Tuesday (in March that year), and taking the nomination going away.

I think what eventually handicapped Tsongas (a very bright man) was voter worry about his health. He had stepped down from the Senate in 1984 after being diagnosed with cancer. He had fought the illness off and ran for president, but even though he beat Clinton in New Hampshire, he could never overcome the Arkansan's "comeback" momentum. (He died five years later, in 1997, when the cancer returned.)

It was a strange election in many ways, kind of like this one. There was a raft of strong Democratic contenders, including a woman, Sen. Pat Schroeder of Colorado (a graduate of my high school).

That was also the year of Ross Perot's quixotic third-party candidacy. And on the Republican side, President George Bush the Elder was trying to run for re-election in the face of a recession that even had GOP voters thinking about jumping ship. (In South Dakota's Republican primary, with Bush's name the only one on the ballot, nearly a third voted for "Uncommitted.") Not hard to see why he lost.

I'd be interested in going to see a Clinton stem-winder in person, but I'm averse to crowds, and it's sounding like Redwood Acres will be a mob scene. So I'll be content to tune the radio to Clinton who, as a front-line Baby Boomer three months older than I am, has crossed paths with me once again.