I don’t know this for certain but I don’t think anyone was thinking Bill Clinton represented a shift towards the center as much as they were like “cool, saxophone guy!”. I don’t think they were moving away from the aggressive communism and raw sexual liberation of Walter Mondale.
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Hell no! He won because the man can talk to a crowd and get them to pump their fist and be excited about whatever it is he happens to be talking about.
Perot is 100% why Clinton won his first term.
What did he accomplish? Signing NAFTA? Signing DOMA? Signing the 1994 Crime Bill? Welfare Reform?
Fuck Bill Clinton
I mean we just lost 2 of the three most winnable elections in history against a wildly unfit opponent who constantly says he's going to flip the boat over and set it on fire and then actually tries while in office.
But we better not be seen as wanting to rock the boat"
It's coded anti-Black, but he also played sax so he won.
When you just focus on electability, you forget about efficacy in the calculation.
If there’s a 50% shot at getting a centrist elected but they will then enact 10 points of liberalism that’s 5 EPL (expected points of liberalism)
A 20% shot at 100 points is 20 EPL
Go for it!
Bill Clinton got elected twice because of Perot. The third-party candidate who actually made a difference. He also got 9% in 1996.
For comparison Gary Thompson and Ralph Nader got 3%. Jill Stein 1%.