There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that this year’s race for the Democratic nomination is close.  Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been the two major candidates pretty much the whole year.  While Hillary might have had a bit of an edge early on, Obama has recently taken a huge surge, leaving Hillary desperate for a win in Ohio and Texas if she wants to still stay in the race. 

                If Hillary did pull off a win over the next week, it would be a huge comeback for the New York state Senator.  She might even be worthy of the nickname, “The Comeback Kid”.  However that might be too fitting since it was the name given to her husband, Bill, in 1992 when he came from behind to win the 1992 Democratic nomination.

(Bill and Hillary)

The 1992 Democratic race had a couple of differences than this year’s race.  First of all, Bill enjoyed the advantage of having a number of candidates running against him.  Bill Clinton was running against Tom Harkin, Bob Kerrey, Paul Tsongas, and Jerry Brown, with no candidate showing a huge majority.  This was an advantage for Bill because he could lose and lose and lose because no candidate was wining all the time.  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2008/01/is_1992_the_model_1.html

                This is not the case for Hillary, who has run mostly against Obama the whole campaign, with John Edwards in there early on.

                Getting back to 1992, in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush seemed unbeatable.  However a small economic recession gave the Democrats some hope.  Early on, Tom Harkin was victorious in Iowa, his home state.  Shortly after that, a woman named Gennifer Flowers made Clinton a more well-known name when she came forward with allegations that the two of them had had an affair.  Bill Clinton turned this potential “bad press” into “good press” when him and his wife Hillary appeared on 60 Minutes following the Super Bowl, to address the issue.

(Gennifer Flowers)

In the New Hampshire primary it was Paul Tsongas with the win, however Bill Clinton’s second place finish gave his chances new hope and earned him the name “The Comeback Kid.”  From there, Bill Clinton continued to make his presence known as he swept nearly all of the Super Tuesday primaries.  A huge reason behind Bill’s success on Super Tuesday was the good ole’ South.  He had won six southern states on Super Tuesday.  Bill was the governor of Arkansas and the South proved to be his firewall in 1992.  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2008/01/is_1992_the_model_1.html

                Bill was the clear front runner now; however a grassroots strategy by Jerry Brown pulled him awfully close to the Arkansas governor.  Brown used a 1-800 number to call mass numbers of people and receive funding for his campaign.  His wins in Connecticut and Colorado made it look like he was going to take over Bill.  However a series of controversial bumps set Brown behind and Clinton won the Democratic nomination in early April after his win in New York.

                So while this year’s Democratic contest may be close, there were some other ones that share the small margins of victory as well.  Who knows, maybe Hillary will share the same nickname as her husband after this week’s primaries in Ohio and Texas.