Clinton Defeats Clinton

Black and white photograph of a man in a suit and glasses holding up a newspaper with red text on it.

This button was made after the 1992 U.S. presidential election in which Bill Clinton defeated incumbent president George H.W. Bush. It was also made with a "Bush Defeats Clinton" headline. The "Clinton Defeats Clinton" headline on the newspaper held up by Harry S Truman on this button harkens back to the 1948 election, when the Chicago Daily Tribune mistakenly printed the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman," which didn't actually happen.

In that contest, Republican Thomas Dewey led several polls and was widely expected to beat incumbent president Truman. An early deadline meant that the first post-election Tribune had to go to press before many election results were in. It printed roughly 150,000 papers with the Dewey Defeats Truman headline, yet the late election returns came in for Truman, giving him the win.