But the Bradley and Powell campaigns never materialized, and the Republicans deferred the nomination to Dole, allowing Clinton room to maneuver in 1996, Berke said.
In general, Keen said that when considering obstacles to Clinton's reelection, reporters underestimated the strong campaign skills he displayed in the 1992 election.
A Quiet Future
The turbulence of the 1992 and 1994 elections gave way to an uneasy equilibrium in 1996, said Brownstein.
The likely result of the elections is that the kind of sweeping change and partisan bickering that followed the 1994 elections will give way to slow, incremental change reached by bipartisan compromise, Brownstein said.
As well, the President may choose to focus on smaller issues in his second term like school uniforms or the family leave bill as opposed to sweeping big government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, King said.
Maxine Isaacs, the adjunct lecturer at the Kennedy School and former press secretary for Walter Mondale, moderated the event, which was hosted by IOP Fellow Mark Merritt, former chief spokesperson for the 1996 Republican National Convention. Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal was also a panelist