The voting capped a grueling campaign in which Mr. Clinton came back from seeming disaster in the New Hampshire primary, where questions were raised about how he avoided the draft in the Vietnam War, setting off a round of attacks from his political opponents on his trustworthiness. Mr. Clinton survived with a remarkably disciplined campaign that stayed focused on the economy and what he often called "the forgotten middle class."

Mr. Bush, at the same time, fell from great heights as the economy continued to falter. He spent much of the year trying to convince the voters that the country was in better shape than they thought. Still, the voter surveys showed that seven in 10 voters considerd the economy either poor or "not so good," and Mr. Clinton ran strongly among them.

Mr. Clinton also ran strongly among young voters, working women and a variety of other groups that showed the strains in the Republican coalition, which had been held together for years by economic growth and a fierce anti-Communism. And his Southern roots, like those of Jimmy Carter in 1976, made him a formidable challenger to the Republicans in the heart of their political base in the South. The big states of Florida and Texas stayed fiercely competitive until the end.

Mr. Clinton, who is 46 years old, becomes the first President born after World War II -- a changing of the guard in American politics.

Mr. Clinton's careful strategy to appeal to suburban residents, independent voters and moderates clearly paid off. Nearly half of the suburban voters backed Mr. Clinton, compared with about a third who were supporting Mr. Bush. Mr. Clinton also carried 4 in 10 of the independent voters, with Mr. Bush splitting the rest with Mr. Perot.

Here, and in several other demographic categories, Mr. Clinton broke into groups that for the past decade were clear parts of the Republican Presidential majority -- the swing voters drawn to the Republicans by the promise of fiscal responsibility and economic growth. In 1980 and 1988, for example, independents went heavily for Mr. Reagan and Mr. Bush.

The President-elect also won more than half of the voters who consider themselves moderates, suggesting that he had succeeded in his goal of recasting the Democratic Party in a more centrist image. Only 3 in 10 of the moderates backed Mr. Bush, who was widely thought to be hurt by the backlash to the "family values" appeal at the Republican National Convention. Again, that was a far poorer showing than Mr. Bush had in 1988.