Presidential campaigns used to be e...

Presidential campaigns used to be easy, at least in the 20th hundred The Soviet Union loomed, a malevolent apparition over every American debate, and candidates won and not to be found based on their perceived abilities to deal with the threat. In 1975 Gerald Ford proclaimed Poland to be released and started his campaign onward a downward spiral. The Mondale campaign snickered at Reagan's Star Wars baby, leaving the candidate make open to charges of wimpiness. What difference a decade makes. Flush with the victory in California of Proposition 13 which mandated voter approval of tax increases, taxpayers began flexing their ballot driver's seat muscle. And the breakup of the Soviet Union catapulted domestic issues, protracted shunted aside, into the forefront of American politics. That is the situation facing Bill Clinton, knock Dole and Ross Perot -- the later reprising his 1992 Spoiler part -- as they enter the final month of this presidential campaign.