Steve Kornacki: Bill Clinton, Republican Role Model for the Primary

Steve Kornacki writes about politics for Salon. Reach him by email at SKornacki@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @SteveKornacki 

...[Bill Clinton is] the silver lining for dejected Republicans – and the definitive cautionary tale for any Democrat tempted to pop the champagne cork. It can be hard to appreciate now with Clinton’s reputation as a peerless political talent secure for generations to come, but 20 years ago at roughly this same moment, it was common wisdom that his nomination would be a disaster for the Democratic Party.

Clinton had emerged in late 1991 as the Democratic front-runner only after the party’s entire A-list roster passed on the race. Shortly thereafter, he was rocked by a string of scandals (Gennifer Flowers, the Vietnam draft) that drove up his negative ratings and convinced most observers that he’d made an easy mark for George H.W. Bush and his attack machine. Thanks to the lack of a broadly acceptable alternative – after Bob Kerrey failed to ignite, Clinton’s two chief opponents became Paul Tsongas and Jerry Brown – Clinton emerged as the Democratic nominee anyway, but only after a bumpy process marked by limited voter enthusiasm and loud calls for a white knight candidate.

So unpopular was Clinton that he soon fell to third place in general election trial heats, trailing not just Bush but also Ross Perot, whose independent candidacy initially satisfied the demands of anti-Bush voters who saw Clinton as unacceptable. The economy was in rough shape and Bush’s popularity was perilously low, but the smart money in the spring of ’92 was on him winning reelection anyway, due mainly to the Democrats’ self-destruction.

Sound familiar?...