Thursday, November 13, 2008

A Sea Change In America? I Don't Buy It.

We are now being told that the 2008 Presidential Election signaled a sea change in America. I don’t buy it. For the first reason, I learned very quickly from my days as a lobbyist in Jefferson City, you can never believe what the media tells you regarding the political system. Second, look at our recent history of U.S. Presidents. The only time we have not changed our President’s party after eight years in recent history was after Ronald Reagan. And that was only because he was a wildly popular President. Four additional years of George H.W. Bush gave us William Jefferson Clinton. It seems that every eight years the American people need to change the party of their Presidents. That period can, of course, be shortened for a particularly bad President. Add to these factors that this year the media went to unprecedented levels of bias in reporting, the extreme financial difficulties arising in the country, a particularly weak Republican candidate and the groundbreaking character of this election. I would prefer to wait a year or two and see the electorate’s response to the new policies of our new President. I seem to recall many similar prognostications upon the election of William Jefferson Clinton. It was fascinating to see what happened just two years later.

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