[Tupelo]

I remember back in 1992, I heard a conservative talk show host (I cannot remember his name) say; “I just saw the next President of the United States”. He was talking about Bill Clinton and was referencing his thoughts when he saw Clinton walking across an airport tarmac. If memory serves, this was in January of 1992. Almost the same time frame as Mr. Root’s column. I wonder if he is as clairvoyant as that long ago talk show host.

[Defiant]

In Jan 92, Clinton was pathetic and struggling. He had to manufacture that "Comeback Kid" story, and barely made it through the primaries, and only had a shot at all because the bigger names didn't want to take on a sitting president. By May, Clinton was in 3rd place. Then their plan kicked in, the same kind of plan that the GOPe had for us with Bush, and the same kind of plan that Hillary has for us by convincing the GOPe to run Bush. Perot, who was never serious, dropped out, all those people he got worked up switched over to Clinton, giving Clinton the lead for the first time, and Clinton held onto it.

By August, when people started to see Clinton as a phony, and his numbers dropped to where Bush was catching up, guess who shows up to the party again? Perot, to get that 20 percent that kept Bush from overtaking Clinton. Clinton wins with 43 percent.

If a talk show host saw something in Clinton in January 92 that said he would be President, he would have seen it in Huey Long, Gary Hartpence, or Dick Gephardt, too. There was no difference between any of them at that stage of their contests. Clinton was simply the one who had a vote splitting plan that worked, and the one who was running against a feckless GOPe liar who had pissed off his own voters enough that they wanted an alternative.