CHECK POINT; The June Benchmark

[Window]

March 6, 2008
CHECK POINT; The June Benchmark
By CONRAD MULCAHY


snip

The 1992 Democratic campaign to defeat President George Bush started much later than this year's campaign. Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, announced his candidacy on Oct. 3, 1991. Mrs. Clinton began her race last January, and her Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, entered the contest soon after.

snip

Yet by March 20, 1992, the list of Democrats seeking the nomination had dwindled to the point where Phil Angelides, then the chairman of the California Democratic Party, said, ''Today is really the day we start the general election campaign against George Bush.''

Less than two weeks later, on April 8, after winning the New York primary, Mr. Clinton's deputy campaign manager, George Stephanopoulos, declared the process complete.

''It's mathematically impossible for Brown to get the nomination, and it would take Tsongas about 90 percent of the remaining delegates to win,'' Mr. Stephanopoulos said, referring to Senator Paul E. Tsongas of Massachusetts, who had already suspended his campaign, and Jerry Brown, the former California governor. Though Mr. Brown competed until the Democratic convention, Mr. Clinton was the presumptive nominee.

But even if you take June 1992 as the month when Mr. Clinton had it ''wrapped up,'' as Mrs. Clinton now says, only nine months had passed since he had entered the race. By June, Mrs. Clinton's campaign would be in its 17th month.


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E2D91138F935A35750C0A96E9C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print