Well for starters, Clinton won it by 6 points, and it's been closer than that in every election since.
Looking at the county map, it's amazing how much the Gulf Coast north of Tampa has swung towards the GOP. That seems to be a less discussed aspect of Florida's political geography that has kept the GOP competitive despite massive Dem gains in the I-4 corridor and in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale/Palm Beach area.
This was around the time that Gingrich was heavily pushing cuts in Medicare and seniors were still largely of the New Deal generation in 1996.
Also, as the maps computer89 posted show a lot of counties in the mid-Panhandle and the western part of the state were still Democratic at the time.
