Clinton Who?

1988- Bill Clinton's long-winded speech before the Democratic Convention, makes him look far more foolish than he thought. His later attempt at redemption on "The Tonight Show" fails, when the show is pre-empted by an earthquake in San Francisco.

1992- Six days before the Iowa primary, Jennifer Flowers releases tapes of a conversation between her and Clinton. The tapes are highly incriminating and paint Clinton as an adulterer. Other women step forward and make similar charges. Again, an attempt to "clear the air" on "60 Minutes" ends badly as Clinton and his wife Hillary flub a question about former Democratic Presidential candidate Gary Hart and his problems with philandering.

Clinton comes in fourth behind Harkin, Tsongas, and Bob Kerrey in Iowa. Tsongas wins New Hampshire, with Kerrey second and Harkin third, and Clinton and Jerry Brown tied at fourth. South Carolina, Clinton's "make or break" (as a Southern state) leaves him in a poor third, behind Tsongas and Kerrey. He drops out of the race and returns to Arkansas. (He later runs for US Senator from Arkansas against Tim Hutchinson in 1996, and loses by a narrow margin.)

1992-  Paul Tsongas wins the Democratic nomination. He asks "Southern centrist" Al Gore to run as his Vice-President. Unfortunately, Tsongas is a "Greek Massachusetts liberal" and the parallels to Michael Dukakis are unmistakable. Despite the bleeding off of many conservative votes by Ross Perot, President George H.W. Bush wins a second term by 51%-44% over the Tsongas-Gore ticket.

1996-  Dan Quayle runs as the incumbent Vice-President, and most Democrats consider this election to be a "cake-walk" for whoever takes the Democratic nomination. Unfortunately, the split between the conservatives and liberals in the Party, is more contentious than thought. By the time the primaries are throught, nominee Al Gore is badly bruised, both by his base, the "centrists" and by the liberal base, which openly calls him a sell-out. Quayle wins, but only by 2% and 4 electoral votes.

2000-  Bill Clinton makes a second attempt at the Democratic nomination. His early numbers look good in Iowa, but just as the debates get underway, an intern at this Little Rock law firm admits on an e-mail, that she had been giving the former Arkansas governor oral sex for the past eight months. The e-mail, copied by a Republican friend of the woman, ends up on "The Drudge Report" and reporters swarm her home. Three weeks later, Clinton drops out of the race, as poll numbers show him in sixth place behind Rep. Dennis Kucinich.