In 1992 the Democrats had lost five of the previous six presidential elections, four by crushing landslides. Clinton understood that something had to change; he couldn't run as just another liberal Democrat raging against the Reagan/conservative movement machine. Thus, his 1992 campaign was marked by three specific moments that sent a clear message that the Arkansas governor was a new kind of Democrat.

First, Clinton famously made a public comment slamming a black female rapper named Sister Souljah and the Rev. Jesse Jackson for associating with her. The "Sister Souljah Moment" grew out of a comment she made about black-on-black crime and how maybe black people should kill white people for a week instead.

The comment was taken out of context, but Clinton's sharp criticism of her resonated with many moderate voters who were put off by the prominent role Rev. Jackson played in the 1984 and 1988 Democratic conventions. It showed that the Democrats under Mr. Clinton would stop pandering to him and helped him clinch the nomination.

Once he did secure that nomination, Clinton's campaign made a big show of emphasizing just how strongly he supported the death penalty. That put him in sharp contrast to the 1988 Democratic Party nominee Michael Dukakis, who famously could not even publicly commit to supporting the death penalty when asked in a debate about a hypothetical case where his own wife Kitty were raped and murdered.