"Why, after more than three decades of steadily increasing apathy and hostility toward the electoral process, did Americans in electing Bill Clinton and denying George Bush a second term post the largest percentage turnout since the election of John F. Kennedy"" This is the question posed by Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover in Mad As Hell: Revolt at the Ballot Box, 1992, their account of the presidential election. In fact, an estimated 55.24 percent of the voting age population (including 11 million first-time voters) participated in the 1992 election, according to the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate—an increase from 50.1 percent in 1988 and a turnout larger than any since 1972. The higher turnout raised the question of why American voters, whose participation had steadily declined since 1960, showed increased interest in this particular election.

For Germond and Witcover and other media experts, part of the answer lies in the...