Back in 1992 I was watching from the balcony of Madison Square Garden as Bill Clinton accepted the Democratic party nomination for the presidency. On stage with him was his wife, Hillary, and their young daughter, Chelsea. The music that blared from the loudspeakers as the Clintons took their bow was Fleetwood Mac singing “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow”. It was a quintessentially American message – optimistic and forward-looking.
By contrast, if and when Hillary Clinton bids for the presidency in 2016, her unofficial campaign anthem might as well be “Yesterday”. The most powerful appeal of the Clinton name is nostalgia for the good old days of the 1990s, when all America’s troubles seemed so far away.
Opinion polls show that Mr Clinton is now easily the most well-regarded president of the past 25 years. Mrs Clinton has her own formidable résumé – as a senator and as secretary of state. But a large part of her appeal still lies in the warm glow of the Clinton brand. As Maureen Dowd of The New York Times, a long-time chronicler of the foibles of the Clintons, pointed out in a recent column, even their bitter enemies seem to be succumbing to nostalgia. Ms Dowd quoted Bill O’Reilly, the conservative television star: “With Hillary you get Bill. And Bill knows what’s going on.”