Bill Clinton was elected primarily because he convinced enough Americans that the USA was in dire economic straits and that he would remedy our problems by implementing 'change.' Clinton's scheme was as brilliant as it was deceptive.

Clinton first successfully engineered a wholesale history rewrite of the 1980s in order to demonize Reaganomics; then he wrongly accused President George Bush of continuing the policies of Reaganomics, when Bush hadn't.

Having set up Reaganomics as the straw dog, Clinton was then able to argue, once elected, that he had a mandate to change course from the path of Reaganomics. Bush would still be president if he had stuck with Regan's economic policies.