History Offers Post-Midterm Survival Tips For President

[cal04]

The president was in a funk. Morose from midterm elections that handed Congress to the opposition, he stewed in private, vented to friends, turned on aides and summoned self-help gurus to help him understand just what went wrong. He was left to argue with reporters that he was still "relevant."

It took Bill Clinton months to get his feet planted again after the 1994 defeat. But he did recover and went on to win reelection two years later. So too did Ronald Reagan bounce back from the 1986 midterm elections, which cost his party the Senate. As President Bush struggles to recover from a similar thrashing, his advisers are studying the Clinton and Reagan models for lessons to revive his presidency.

Historical comparisons are always fraught with peril, since each president faces his own distinct challenges and brings unique faculties and flaws to the task. But veterans of past administrations see patterns that offer hope even to badly weakened presidents such as Bush. Adversaries who assume that Bush has been permanently crippled by the Democratic takeover of Congress, they say, misunderstand the opportunities still available to him.
(snip)
"He really has to make a fundamental decision, and if he hasn't made it by now, it may be too late," said Leon E. Panetta, who was Clinton's chief of staff in 1994 and now serves on a bipartisan commission on Iraq. "He has to decide whether he's going to be willing to sit down with the Democratic leadership and cut deals and get things done. And he has to decide whether Iraq is going to be his whole legacy, good or bad, or whether he wants to get other things done."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/26/AR2006112601131.html

[Demeter]

1. NPR Today Offering Comfort to Bush

NPR talking about how the 6th year is always rough, Truman, Reagan, Clinton, but all made "comebacks" in public opinion.

Hah! Truman made combacks because Eisenhower had at least 3 recessions during his terms. (Hence the Baby Boom--women have babies during recessions).

Reagan made combacks because he got shot, which buried Iran/Contra under a sympathy vote, plus they managed to bury it really well. It was "too confusing" for the media to tell the tale (and they were paid really well for their inability to get the news out).

Clinton never had to come back, since popular opinion on his presidency was never low. It was his personal life that was unpopular, but never his policies. Lately, though, that's being rethought, especially as a result of his sucking up to Bush Sr.


The Federal Reserve is printing money like crazy, so inflation, not recession will hit us first. The recession will be a whopper, and probably won't hit (anywhere besides Michigan, which has been in recession since 9/11/2001) until after Bush's term is up.

Nobody except the Secret Service can get close enough to shoot Bush (wonder if he and Cheney are ever in the same room anymore...)

Nobody's interested in burying the Bush scandals, and there are too many to cover up, anyway.


No, Dumbya will be in the Nixon mould. Didn't Nixon resign in his 6th year?