BILL CLINTON: “And so, in the name of all those who do the work, pay the taxes, raise the kids, and play by the rules; in the name of the hard-working Americans who make up our forgotten middle class, I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States.”

Bill Clinton chose Senator Al Gore of Tennessee as his running mate for vice president.

(MUSIC)

The Republicans nominated President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for a second term.

Another candidate in the nineteen ninety-two presidential election was a Texas businessman named Ross Perot. He competed as an independent, a so-called third party candidate. His choice for vice president was James Stockdale, a former high-level Navy officer and pilot. He had been shot down and held as a prisoner of North Vietnam for seven years.

During the campaign, Ross Perot argued that neither of the major candidates was taking the national debt seriously enough. He also warned of the loss of American jobs.

ROSS PEROT: “To those of you in the audience who are business people, [it’s] pretty simple. If you’re paying twelve, thirteen dollars, fourteen dollars an hour for factory workers, and you can move your factory south of the border, pay a dollar an hour for your labor, have no health care -- that’s the most expensive single element in making a car -- have no environmental controls, no pollution controls, and no retirement, and you don’t care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south.”