Bush is certainly having his troubles, but he is not alone in that. In fact, there has not be a 2nd term President since Eisenhower (at least) who was not completely or at least significantly paralyzed in his second term by some scandal or controversy:
Lyndon Johnson -- Vietnam
Richard Nixon -- Watergate
Ronald Reagan -- Iran-Contra
Bill Clinton -- Monica Lewinsky/Whitewater, etc.
I don't know what this says about our culture or politics or politicians or values, but it seems reasonably clear that we have reached the point at which 4 years is enough. For some, of course, even four years is too much (Ford, Carter, Bush I), but I guess we can't ban people from ever becoming President.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Bill, I think this is a terrific argument to support a single, six-year Presidential term. Currently, a first-term President only has 18 to 24 months to get his (or her, someday) agenda on track -- after that, it's time to start the campaign cycle all over again (especially if they have the muscle to support the mid-term Congressional reelection campaigns).
A six-year term would allow a solid three to four years of work, and the guy/gal wouldn't have to worry about pandering for reelection -- maybe even squeezing out another year of productivity as a result! The nation would save hundreds of millions of dollars in useless expenditures that would otherwise go to network advertising, Air Force One jet fuel and Secret Service overtime. The poor bastards wouldn't have to worry so much about being branded a failure, either. After all...even the good ones would only get one turn at the throttle!
On a separate note, it'll be very interesting to see how disfunctional the Bush White House becomes when Turd Blossom is indicted and is finally forced to resign. I'll put my money on a big jump to the right, because people naturally want to go back home when the stuff hits the fan. The Right is unlikely to be satisfied, however, because the Administration will be hamstrung by the invigorated Democrats, and the parochial agenda will grind to a halt.
It's just too bad that EPA wasn't able to move further on NSR reform while there was still some political momentum to take advantage of.
Rob
(P.S. Does this blogging software have some way to spell check? I always worry about stream of consciousness writing.)
Post a Comment