In 1992, there were three viable candidates, incumbent George H.W. Bush, democrat Bill Clinton and independent Ross Perot, who ultimately won 19% of the popular vote. There was little focus on terrorism by any of the candidates; campaign issues were primarily domestic and economic. For Bush, terrorism could be mobilized as a topic to question Clinton’s experience and decisiveness. Perot used the issue to poke holes in Bush's judgment, based on his tenure as vice president.
On the day before the election, both Bush and Clinton made terrorism related charges. Bush, addressing a Wisconsin audience, posed this scenario: "…imagine a year from today if you picked up a newspaper out in front of your house and you read about … some terrorist getting a hold of a nuclear weapon and how you would react to that … imagine in that dangerous situation an American leader without any experience, completely untested, a leader about whom literally we know very, very little, and what we do know is this troubling pattern that I mentioned, this …pattern of indecisiveness."
Perot, on the day before the election, reminded the nation that Bush, in the Reagan administration, had supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s: " Then starting in 1980, when you became Vice President, you started spending billions of dollars of yours and mine [sic] hard-earned money to create Saddam Hussein in Iraq. For 10 years, they poured money into this; for 10 years we poured money into creating him; then he got out of control."
Bill Clinton won the election with 43% of the vote.