Until now, covering the Whitewater affair has been regarded as the sport of cranks, Right-wing conspiracy theorists and dedicated enemies of the president and his wife. But this week the saga of a small-time land deal has become a running front-page story in the mainstream press and the first item on network television news bulletins.

The Wall Street Journal highlighted Mrs Clinton's failure to explain how subpoenaed billing records suddenly turned up in her private quarters "like some miraculous backyard apparition".

Mrs Clinton is widely and openly derided as untruthful and evasive in print and on the popular late night television shows. Even those Americans who could not care less about the minutiae of the affair - and they are in the majority - believe she is hiding something. As the Journal noted: "If this isn't a cover-up, it's the best imitation of one in the history of American government."

The Los Angeles Times, which has been largely supportive of the Clintons, predicted that Whitewater was now likely to become a hot issue in the coming election.

13 December 1995: Whitewater inquiry 'finds the smoking gun'