"It's the economy, stupid" is a catchphrase that means that the primary concern of American voters is the state of the American economy, and how the economy affects their personal finances.
The phrase was coined by
James Carville in 1992 as "The economy, stupid". It is often quoted from a televised quip by Carville as "It's the economy, stupid". Carville was a strategist in
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
's
successful campaign in the
1992 U.S. presidential election against incumbent
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
. His phrase was directed at the campaign's workers and intended as one of three messages for them to focus on. The others were "Change vs. more of the same" and "Don't forget health care".
Clinton's campaign advantageously used the
then-prevailing recession in the United States as one of the campaign's means to successfully unseat George H. W. Bush. In March 1991, days after the
ground war in Kuwait, 90% of polled Americans approved of President Bush's job performance.
[Agiesta, Jennifer]
Approval Highs and Lows
. ''The Washington Post''. 2007-07-24. During the following year, Americans' opinions turned sharply; 64% of polled Americans disapproved of Bush's job performance in August 1992.
[
]
History
In order to keep the campaign on message, Carville hung a sign in Bill Clinton's Little Rock
Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...
campaign headquarters that read:
#Change vs. more of the same.
#The economy, stupid.
#Don't forget health care.
Although the sign was intended for an internal audience of campaign workers, the second phrase became a '' de facto'' slogan for the Clinton election
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
campaign.
Legacy
The phrase has become a snowclone
A snowclone is a clichéd phrase in which one or more words can be substituted to express a similar idea in a different context, often to humorous or sarcastic effect. For example, the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's phrase "the mother of all bat ...
repeated often in American political culture
Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture.
Political culture is what the people, the voters, the electorates believe and do based on their understanding of the ...
, usually starting with the word "it's" and with commentators sometimes using a different word in place of "economy". Examples include "It's the deficit, stupid!", "It's the corporation, stupid!", "It's the math, stupid!", and "It's the voters, stupid!" Judge Mark E. Walker wrote, "It's the First Amendment
First most commonly refers to:
* First, the ordinal form of the number 1
First or 1st may also refer to:
Acronyms
* Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array
* Far Infrared a ...
, stupid", in a decision regarding a case between Florida Department of Health officials and the abortion rights advocates Floridians Protecting Freedom after the department filed cease-and-desist letters against television stations that aired an advertisement produced by the group.
See also
* List of United States political catchphrases
* '' The War Room''
* Keep it simple, stupid
References
{{reflist, 30em
American political catchphrases
Snowclones
Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign
Political quotes
1992 quotations