NARRATOR: It's 1992,

President George H.W. Bush is up for re-election.

With a squeaky clean image,

he's had some of the highest approval ratings

of any president.

Then, a political bad boy joins the race.

(jazzy saxophone music)

AJ BENZA: Bill Clinton came on the scene.

A young guy, the next Kennedy,

handsome, charismatic.

ICE-T: Clinton's over here playing the saxophone.

I'm like, oh, this dude is smooth.

This dude is a real player.

NARRATOR: He may be smooth,

but Clinton will need some serious help

in a presidential race that promises

to be anything but boring.

CONNIE CHUNG: Scandal wasn't a new thing in politics,

but nothing was like Clinton when he was first running

for president of the United States.

BILL CLINTON: Come on.

JOE KLEIN: In the old days,

there was one news cycle a day. (laughs)

There was the evening news on television.

KURT ANDERSEN: Only during Clinton's campaign

did we start getting the 24/7 news cycle

that previous candidates didn't have to deal with.

NARRATOR: Clinton needs a team to stay on top

of the news coverage, ready to spin the story.

The leaders are young communications director

George Stephanopoulos...

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: That's what the American people care about.

They wanna move into the future.

NARRATOR: ...and their greatest weapon,

political consultant James Carville,

known throughout Washington as the Ragin' Cajun.

CARVILLE: I've always said a political campaign

is like you've kicked down a door,

you don't know what's behind it.

NARRATOR: Carville's a genius at political strategy

and keeping the campaign on message.

CARVILLE: Stay focused, talk about things

that matter to people,

you know.

It's the economy, stupid.

NARRATOR: Combative and loud,

he ushers in a new era

of political hand-to-hand combat,

organized from his war room.

CARVILLE: The war room was conceived

to deal with... to compress news cycles

in a coherent and coordinated way.

GEORGE BUSH SR.: And I will stand on my record,

and I won't let that Arkansas governor

run away from his record either.

(crowd cheering)

NARRATOR: When Bush attacks,

Clinton's war room ignores the old tactic

of letting bad stories blow over

and goes on the offensive.

CARVILLE: What are we gonna do when George Bush attacks us?

Why can't we attack George Bush?

NEWS ANCHOR: Today, Governor Clinton accused

the president's party of misrepresenting his past.

Here's ABC's Jim Wooten.

CARVILLE: The idea was to answer somethin'

in a creative, a provocative way,

that editors would see and lead with that story.