An Interesting Notion

Albeit Unsettling

Here is another idea that I ripped off from something I read yesterday:  Most of the successes of two term presidents is the result of the unpopular initiatives of one term presidents.

I know this sounds like I am conceding the upcoming election to Romney.  I'm not.  I still think Obama will eke out a victory, although it looks increasingly possible that that victory will be decided in the electoral morass that Colorado's idiot and partisan Secretary of State has created.  I don't know if we Coloradans should be proud or ashamed to be the next Florida.

Anyway, back to the interesting idea.  Jimmy Carter was a one term president because he made the fatal mistake of suggesting that we cut back, be more austere, conserve resources.  These are not popular positions today.  In the late 70's they were anathema.  The hostage crisis didn't help his reelection chances, but he would have lost in any event.  Ronald Reagan swept in and got the adoration of conservatives everywhere for rolling back regulations and overseeing a short lived economic boom that quickly turned to unmanageable deficit and scandal (Iran-Contra) by the time his 8 years were mercifully up.  But the deregulation and the booming economy were the results of policies started by Carter.  Carter was the first to start deregulating (Airlines) on a systematic scale.  The economy rebounded under Reagan because of the fiscal good sense instituted by Carter.  Carter was vilified for the very things he did to make Reagan such a success.

The same thing is true of Bush I.  He had to clean up the mess Reagan left him, the same job Carter had following Nixon/Ford.  To his credit he realized his "No New Taxes" pledge was impossible to keep unless he was willing to usher in a major recession, so he raised taxes.  He also conducted a prudent campaign in Iran, without over reaching like his son would do a decade later.  I'm not sure what I think about the "war" in Iran, but I am convinced that Bush's tax increase was a major contributor to the unprecedented growth of the Clinton years.  Bush was voted out of office for doing exactly the right thing (when it came to taxes).  And like Reagan before him, Clinton squandered away that strong start by over reaching and not just in the personal realm.

The same thing could potentially happen again.  Romney and Ryan say they will create 12 million new jobs during their reign.  EVERY "expert" says the economy will grow 12 million jobs in that time no matter who the president is.

Presidents, it turns out, are like the rest of us.  Little people swept up in the tide of great big events.

I've got to close this now.  I'm on my way down to City Park for Obama's rally.  It's gonna make all the difference.