The World According to Oatney

Remember History

Recent history bears out that a substantial victory in the mid-term General Election for a party does not mean that the same party is assured victory in the presidential election two years later. In 1982, the Democrats-who already controlled the House of Representatives at the time-made a substantial gain in the number of seats they held in what was then seen as an early protest vote against President Reagan's economic policies. Two years later, Ronald Reagan was re-elected in a 49-State landslide and left office as one of the most popular Presidents in modern American history. In 1986, Democrats not only held the House but recaptured the Senate for the first time since 1980, yet in 1988, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush was elected to the top job. This writer remembers the 1994 General Election, as it was his first. So many of us were so certain that the GOP landslide that year was the beginning of the end of the Clinton Administration, but we never elected President Dole. Indeed, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole (R-Kansas), was behind in the polls from the beginning of his campaign.

Labels: Conservatism, Elections, Presidential Election, Tennessee politics

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 9:41 PM