But if Gore was blown out, it may have worked against the Democratic willingness to move to the center that got Clinton nominated and elected in '92. So in that campaign probably Jerry Brown does better, and we'll handwave that as a result, he's more prudent and doesn't mention that he'd consider Jesse Jackson as a running mate, which was something that really broke his momentum.
I know the conventional wisdom is that the Dem. primary electorate "learned their lesson" after nominating liberals like Mondale and Dukakis by moving to the center with Clinton, but I don't actually buy it.
I think Clinton won because 1) the big names like Cuomo, Bradley, Gephardt, and Gore sat it out, 2) he was a very highly skilled politician, and 3) he was the only Southern candidate running in a year where the primary calendar favored the South, and he didn't have to deal with Jesse Jackson in the race, siphoning off black votes. Thus, he cleaned up among both Southern whites and blacks.
So I'm not sure Gore '88 being nominated and losing the GE prevents Clinton from being nominated in '92. What it might have done though is prompt Clinton to run a somewhat different campaign, that would avoid too many parallels between himself and Gore.
