Why was Bill Clinton so unpopular at the beginning of his first term?

[SingingAnalyst]

Clinton was elected with a near-record low 43% of the PV. Most Bush and Perot voters saw Clinton as untrustworthy, and his wife as power-hungry. The Dem primary was contentious, with 209 of Paul Tsongas' delegates disobeying Tsongas' instructions to vote for Clinton.

Across the Bible Belt in 1992, signs had sprung up, "To Vote for Clinton is to sin against God"-- not only I suspect because of Clinton's support of abortion and gay rights, but also because Clinton was seen as someone who would usher in a New World Order (just as Bush was seen this way by many four years earlier). His (and AG Janet Reno's) handing of the Branch Davidians in Waco helped confirm these suspicions in many people.

Rural, conservative, religious voters, not just in the South but in the Midwest, West, and even parts of the Northeast (especially PA), have had a bad taste in their mouths for the Dem party ever since. After the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress, Clinton, skilled politician that he is, moved toward the center, passing welfare reform, signing the Defense of Marriage Act, and reducing the deficit (with the help of Congress), which helped his poll numbers enormously. The 1995 Oklahoma City attack also helped his poll numbers, with nearly 2/3 disagreeing with the statement that he was playing politics with the disaster, and he was re-elected, marking a temporary hiatus to the coming electoral divide.