Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has often responded to criticisms about the prolonged Democratic battle with a nod back to another Clinton campaign.

She did it again Wednesday. ''Remember, this is a long journey,'' she said on ''The Early Show'' on CBS. ''My husband didn't get the nomination until June of 1992, and I have every confidence that we're going to continue to pick up delegates as we go.''

That may be so. But ''long'' is a relative term.

The 1992 Democratic campaign to defeat President George Bush started much later than this year's campaign. Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, announced his candidacy on Oct. 3, 1991. Mrs. Clinton began her race last January, and her Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, entered the contest soon after.

The state-by-state primaries and caucuses started a month later in 1992 than they did in 2008. And the compact front-loaded schedule this year means that, unlike then, most of the country's Democrats have already been to the polls.

Yet by March 20, 1992, the list of Democrats seeking the nomination had dwindled to the point where Phil Angelides, then the chairman of the CaliforniaDemocratic Party, said, ''Today is really the day we start the general election campaign against George Bush.''

Less than two weeks later, on April 8, after winning the New York primary, Mr. Clinton's deputy campaign manager, George Stephanopoulos, declared the process complete.

''It's mathematically impossible for Brown to get the nomination, and it would take Tsongas about 90 percent of the remaining delegates to win,'' Mr. Stephanopoulos said, referring to Senator Paul E. Tsongas of Massachusetts, who had already suspended his campaign, and Jerry Brown, the former California governor. Though Mr. Brown competed until the Democratic convention, Mr. Clinton was the presumptive nominee.

But even if you take June 1992 as the month when Mr. Clinton had it ''wrapped up,'' as Mrs. Clinton now says, only nine months had passed since he had entered the race. By June, Mrs. Clinton's campaign would be in its 17th month.

''A long journey'' indeed. CONRAD MULCAHY


PHOTO: The Democratic candidates in 1992, from left: Tom Harkin, Jerry Brown, Bob Kerrey, Paul E. Tsongas and Bill Clinton. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JIM COLE/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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