B3: 1992: Commander in Chief v.s For People, For Change

Looking through the election summaries from 1952-2012 on http://www.livingroomcandidate.org it is interesting to note that any given election year is defined by a core issue. The issues that the election rides on depend on the current circumstances of the U.S.A. If there has been a recent economic crisis, the focus of the campaign will be the economy. If there is a war overseas, the focus shifts to foreign policy and strength.

In 1992, Bill Clinton steered the focus of the campaign to the economy, and a balanced budget. Many people from the era will remember the internal mantra of the Clinton campaign as being "It's the economy, stupid". This effort was further ameliorated by the independent Ross Perot also focusing on the dangers of supply-side economics and running a deficit.

On paper, Bush had some incredible strong advantages: He was Ronald Reagan's vice-president (one of the Unites States' most popular Presidents of all-time), he has just defeated to the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and had emerged victorious from the very successful Operation Desert Storm. The one large crack in the administration, however, was the faltering economy and Clinton framed his campaign successfully to make people focus on that failure.

Bill Clinton's ads focused on bringing in new voters. In 1992, the Democrats hadn't won an election since 1976 and therefore needed to bring in voters who had voted for the Republicans in 1980, 1984, and 1988. Clinton does this by advertising himself as a "new kind of democrat", as in the Leaders 2 video. In this ad, Clinton is mentioned as being "against welfare as we know it" and "supporting the death penalty", both of these concepts are traditionally seen as being right-wing attitudes, and Clinton highlights his own right-wing tendencies to attract these voters.

The demographic that Clinton targets is the middle class. Bill Clinton's ads cast him as being an American everyman, he does this by denoting his lower-income roots, video shots of himself with his sleeves rolled up, and showing off his rural supporters. Themes of honesty, work-ethic, and cautious budgeting are connoted from his denotations.

Clinton then juxtaposes these themes by showing why George Bush is dishonest, out of touch, and financially incompetent. In Clinton's ad 'Maine', is a 30 second ad that manages to indirectly hit 3 separate attacks on Bush.

1. Firstly, it denotes him playing golf and boating in Maine.The connotation is that George Bush is high-society member who boats and golfs in New England. Also, it connotes that he is not working hard, and spends a lot of time performing leisurely activities.
2. Secondly, the ad denotes George Bush's home, which is huge and on the water. What is connoted here once again is that George bush isn't like the average American, and is so removed from the middle class that he has no idea what issues they are facing. 
3. Thirdly, the ad denotes how George Bush avoids paying taxes by listing his home as being in Texas. What is connoted is that he is dishonest and avoids paying his taxes. The ad then brilliantly ends by pointing out that when people like George Bush avoid paying additional taxes, the burden falls on the middle class.

The rest of the ads generally denote Clinton's focus on balancing a budget and his past successes in doing so. Clinton created a picture of himself as fighting for the middle class while George Bush as being rich and out of touch. Clinton's ads focus on how Bush's policies hurt the middle class and on the budget failures of supply side economics.
The ads also focus on honesty. Bush had introduced a gasoline tax after pledging "Read my lips, no new taxes" and Clinton hit him hard on that lie. The attacks were amplified by the fact that the gasoline tax had to be passed in order to combat the deficit-creating effects of supply-side economics. Other ads, like 'Scary' show how Bush's ads are misleading and lying.