Bill Clinton was relatively popular at the time, and consistently held large opinion poll leads over Bob Dole.

Dole himself was 73 years old, which contrasted starkly with Clinton's relative youthfulness. Dole was a competent enough politician, but he wasn't any sort of Obama-like (or even Trump-like) figure to engage the masses and get them rushing to the ballot box.

So the election was seen, correctly, as a foregone conclusion. And there was very little on offer to energise and appeal to Republican voters and Clinton's opponents.