George H.W. Bush lost because Perot came in and split the conservative vote. That's been debunked: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ross-perot-myth/ htt

George H.W. Bush lost because Perot came in and split the conservative vote. That's been debunked: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ross-perot-myth/ http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-ross-perot-myth/ ...and really, in general this is just so much post-facto justification. Whatever the election result, Reasons will always be found in hindsight. If Clinton had lost in '96, you'd be able to say it was due to the Whitewater affair. If GWB had lost in '04, you'd be able to blame the unpopular wars in the middle east (or more specifically, Abu Graib). If Obama had lost in '12, it would be easy to pin it on Obamacare.