Clinton was definitely charismatic and had a unique charm and ability to relate to the common man. He could take difficult concepts and explain them in simple terms. And he was likeable. Hard to compete with that. I still remember after the Gulf War SNL had a skit called "Democrats try to decide who will lose to Bush in 1992" or something like that and it featured all of the front-runner Democrat candidates explaining why they shouldn't be nominated, as it was so obvious they were going to lose, badly. Boy did that not work out.
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/democratic-debate/2859836
if you can get around the Geographic blocker...I think that this is the skit...