Obama: Leading Democrats Over a Cliff

  4 Responses to “Obama: Leading Democrats Over a Cliff”

1. 

   Colin says:

   9/24/2009 at 5:03 pm

   I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:

   There will almost certainly be a “house cleaning” in 2010, but Republicans do NOT have 2012 “in the bag”.

   Don’t ever forget 1996.

   For Clinton’s first two years in office, he had a Democratic Congress which allowed him to do pretty much anything he wanted. And for the most part, everything he wanted to do enraged the American public, and Clinton’s approval ratings reflected that.

   When the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, they forced Clinton to restrain himself somewhat. This also prevented Clinton from angering the voters as much as he had previously.

   Two years later, a Republican Congress had done such a good job of fixing Clinton’s screw-ups that some people forgot just how badly Clinton had screwed up to begin with. The result was, that in 1996, Clinton was re-elected. He was re-elected because of, not in spite of, the Republican Congress.

   Will history repeat itself in 2012? I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to just assume that Obama will not be re-elected.

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   • 

     No2Liberals says:

     9/24/2009 at 8:25 pm

     Colin,
     Currently, B-HØ is the defacto leader of the conservative movement.
     Most of us remember the mid-term election of ’96, but few remember the same lesson of ’66, and we didn’t have talk radio, cable news, or the innernut.
     1966 Midterm Foreshadows Republican Era.

     Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 election landslide, big Democratic gains in Congress, and the subsequent flood of liberal legislation flowing from Washington persuaded many observers that the Republican Party was nearly defunct. At best,
     they reasoned, it would take years for the GOP to reconstitute itself and regain relevance in the American system. (*sound familiar?)

     Two years later, Republicans were revivified and on the brink of an era of increasing political success, including near-domination of presidential elections that Democrats have occasionally overcome but have not yet ended four decades later.

     A number of events took a toll on Johnson’s popularity by late 1966, including lack of demonstrable success in Vietnam, race riots and other civil disturbances at home, and an increasing sense that the Great Society was running amok, spending too much and centralizing too much.

     It’s an excellent editorial.

     Reply
     • 

       Colin says:

       9/25/2009 at 7:19 am

       Thank you for that link; I agree that it is an excellent editorial. I was actually unaware of the Republican upset in 1966 (give me a break, I was two years old!).

       I disagree (unfortunately) with the following statement from the article:

       the Great Society era of federal policymaking ended with the elections of 1966

       It seems to me that the Great Society never went away, and has made a tremendous resurgence in recent months.

       I also agree that part of the reason for 1996 is explained by Sam’s somewhat colorful comment below.

       But still, I stand by my original statement. A Republican victory in 2012 is not a foregone conclusion. That election is still very much up for grabs, and we will need to work very hard to win.

       Reply
2. 

   Sam says:

   9/24/2009 at 5:43 pm

   The problem in 1996 was that we ran Dole and Kemp. Between those two, there was more pussy than a strip club.

   Reply