Posted on 11/18/2011 8:07:56 AM PST by SeekAndFind
For some time now, many conservatives have thought that President Obama is the Second Coming of Jimmy Carter. They think that chronic 9% unemployment, creeping inflation, and a foreign policy of self-abasement and weakness will doom Obama to a single term, and that he'll slink off with his tail between his legs in disgrace, just like Carter did after 1980.
Maybe they should be thinking about the election of 1996 instead.
Does anyone remember the disaster that was Bill Clinton's first term? The first attempt to put gays in the military, the first attack on the World Trade Center by Muslim fanatics, and the "Assault Weapons" Ban? The proposal to raise taxes, increase spending, and downsize the military? Hillary arrogantly proclaiming that she was no little Tammy Wynette standing by her man and baking cookies? That she would revamp the entire health care system, by herself, in secret, without congressional input? Does anyone remember the Waco debacle, which led directly to the Oklahoma City bombing, and Clinton's allegation that it was the fault of talk radio? Does anyone remember the landslide Republican victory in the House in 1994, breaking forty straight years of Democratic control -- a massive rebuke of the Clinton administration?
And yet...Clinton got re-elected in 1996. He didn't just squeak by, either -- he won a crushing 379-159 victory in the Electoral College and beat the Republican ticket by eight and a half percent in the popular vote.
Conservatives were in shock. How could this happen? Answer: after the 1994 conservative revolution in the midterm elections, the Republican 1996 presidential campaign turned into the Revenge of the Flaming Moderates. The Republican primaries featured banal, milquetoast candidates like Lamar Alexander (whose campaign strategy was to don a flannel shirt and stand in front of a sign ...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
“We also had a strong 3rd party campaign by Ross Perot”
one suggested correction:
We also had a stupid 3rd party campaign by Ross Perot
I have never forgiven that jug-eared idiot for inflicting clintoon on us for two terms. And YES, it was his fault.
My prayers are that some other delusional moron doesn’t float to the top of the bowl and give us zero 2.0.
What a lot of people overlook in the mid-1990s is that Bill Clinton actually signed most of Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" into law -- including items like the Federal welfare reform that he had previously vetoed. By 1996 he was basically running as a moderate Republican candidate.
You think Barack Hussein Obama would do any such thing?
Given the candidates, the state of the GOP, the take my ball and go home attitude if my guy doesn’t get the nod, I am predicting here and now an Obama victory in the range of 274-290 EVs. The GOP keeps the House but loses a third of the Tea Party freshmen, and they get to 49 in the Senate.
The OKC bombing saved Bill Clinton.
RE: BOB DOLE, that is the reason we lost.
So, who is the 2012 version of Bob Dole?
If Romney is the nominee, Obamacare will be gone in 2012.
SCOTUS and obamacare. That’s the wild card.
RE: We also had a stupid 3rd party campaign by Ross Perot
Ron Paul might possibly be the 2012 version of Ross Perot...
Oil is trading over $100/barrel today, and the "official" unemployment rate is over 9% while the actual rate is probably north of 15%.
And I haven't even mentioned massive bank bailouts, enormous personal debt, and all the other issues that affect the attitudes of voters. Any comparison between 1996 and today is pretty silly when you consider just how far worse off most Americans are these days.
Yup. We can’t get “McCain’d” with Romney this time...
Dole hit the spending limits early in 1996 so he coudn’t run ads until the convention was done. Clinton didn’t face a primary challenge and had all those chinese $$$ flowing in. Clinton was able to advertise nd hd th bully pulpit. Dole was tapped out and had to work against Senate Democrats which made it difficult to get any kind of message out.
Plus...Dole was a gazillion years old when he ran and has an odd manner of speech. He was satirized to the point he became more of a joke than a candidate
But...the nail in the cofin was welfare reform. Once that was passed and Clinton bowed to pressure and finally signed it, Dole had no real issue to work with domestically. He was toast.
“Given the candidates, the state of the GOP, the take my ball and go home attitude if my guy doesn’t get the nod, I am predicting here and now an Obama victory in the range of 274-290 EVs. The GOP keeps the House but loses a third of the Tea Party freshmen, and they get to 49 in the Senate.”
The wild card is the independents. Most of the moderate/independents I know are talking about staying home. If they are motivated to break one way or the other, that would be a deciding factor.
I can’t imagine what would motivate them, I think they’ll stay home in large numbers, and your prediction will come to pass.
Somehow I think Summer 2012 will be much quieter. Doesn't mean he won't win again, but the enthusiasm and excitement will be notably absent.
The formal and informal TEA Party organizations haven't even gotten started.
And the Obamah & Democrat supported OWS Movement has been an eye-opener to many uninformed Americans.
Interesting take. I suspect Mitt Romney would do far better among independents than most people realize. He’s exactly what many independents really look for in a candidate: a fart in the wind who can take any position from one end of the political spectrum to the other on most issues, depending on which way the wind blows.
“Conservatives were in shock. How could this happen? “
We ran Bob Dole, Clinton didnt run as a hard leftist, we had no huge international crisis, and the economy was not in the toilet.
How hard was that to figure out?
(If I'm wrong, I'll console myself that the next four years will destroy as many liberals as it does conservatives!)
Wasn’t the economy doing better?
it all depends on what happens in the next year.. I hope Obama sinks further and loses, but if the economy makes some strides, who knows. I would gladly take a bad economy until then to de-elect the marxist in chief.
It’s like Republicans have been brainwashed. If they look good or feed some kind of leftist caused race guilt (where non is deserved). It’s time for Repubs to grow u
WOW! You can be even be intellectually contradictory in the same post.
Bob Dole is the reason we lost in 1996 but you want Republicans to grow up and vote for Bob Dole 2.0 in 2012!
Just how many days have you been off your meds this time Marty?
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