Clinton was heading for defeat in 1996, and the Republicans took over Congress in a landslide. But he bounced back and had a terrible Republican opponent and was reelected.
Clinton was elected twice without winning fifty percent of the popular vote either time. You can thank the little guy with the jug ears for Clinton. On the other hand Dole was a terrible candidate and even GHW Bush in 1992 didn’t seem to really want to be reelected. Bill Clinton got away with things in both campaigns that never could have been pulled off even eight years before that time. After the 1996 campaign I was dumbfounded at the stupidity of the average American voter.