Okay, we’re all gonna step into the Wayback Machine.
It’s 1992, specifically April 10, 1992:
Even though Bill Clinton won four primaries on Tuesday, even though Paul E. Tsongas announced today that he would not re-enter the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, even though many of them concede there is probably no stopping Mr. Clinton now, dozens of Democratic senators and representatives remain reluctant to endorse him.
Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia scheduled a news conference for Friday to announce his backing. Senator Tom Daschle told news organizations in his home state, South Dakota, that the moment had come to rally around Mr. Clinton. But beyond that there was little movement.
Of 264 superdelegates in the House and Senate, 93, or 35 percent, have endorsed Mr. Clinton so far, according to a continuing survey by The New York Times. Most are Southern, and most made their statements some time ago. A much larger number remain officially uncommitted.
Dee Dee Myers, Mr. Clinton’s press secretary, insisted that “people are starting to rally around the flag,” and she mentioned Mr. Rockefeller as an example. She also said the Arkansas Governor plans to meet with uncommitted superdelegates on Capitol Hill on April 29, the day after the Pennsylvania primary, when Congress will return from the Easter recess. ‘Terrible Doubts’
But Representative Dennis E. Eckart of Ohio, more willing perhaps to speak on the record than many of his colleagues because he has announced his retirement from the House, said that he and some of his colleagues had constituted an informal “Missouri caucus — a show-me caucus” — and would do nothing for now.
“The voters haven’t embraced Clinton, so I don’t see any reason why I should endorse him,” Mr. Eckart said. “Look at the exit polls. People have terrible doubts about this guy, and we’re talking about Democrats.”
Damn, those were truly some prescient doubting voters, huh ?
Just imagine if things had been different. What if Paul Tsongas somehow beat Clinton for the Democratic nomination back then ?
Well, for one thing we would have had a President with a heck of a lot of consonants in his last him.
More seriously, though, even if he’d managed to beat Bush I, and Perot for that matter, he likely would have died in office.
Nonetheless, history is a funny mistress, isn’t she ?
H/T: Matt Drudge
