Today's economic prosperity makes it especially difficult for third parties. All of that concern with budget deficits and fiscal irresponsibility in 1992 invited Perot with an opportunity to gather votes. That's not here this time. Perot burst into the 1992 presidential campaign and won the most general election votes for a third-party candidate in nearly a century. The Commission on Presidential Debates requires a candidate to gain 15 percent in the polls before earning a spot in the debates.
Many candidates spend much of their effort just collecting petition signatures.
The 2000 presidential election goes into the records as one of the most disputed in U.S. history, but it's not the only one. This quiz tests how much you know about close elections in America's past. Texas Gov. George W. Bush's most daunting challenge may be living up to the hopes that victory-hungry Republicans have attached to his famous name. The last time a Republican won the White House, it was the elder George Bush in 1988.