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| Reaching through almost a century to explain why Obama will lose in November |
I am making my way through Roosevelt's Secret War - FDR and World War II Espionage, by Joseph E. Persico.
Interesting that only this morning I read page 344, where Persico relates this nugget about FDR through his cousin and confidant, Daisy Suckley:
As she recorded in her diary after a lone lunch, "... [H]e remembers Woodrow Wilson telling him that the public is willing to be 'Liberal' about a third of the time, gets tired of new things and reverts to conservatism the other two-thirds of the time."So: eight years of conservative Bush and four of ultra-liberal Obama. Sounds like the liberals' third of the time is up. (Not that I think Bush was actually very conservative; I wrote in 2003 that "Bush Republicanism = Roosevelt Democratism.")
Yet FDR's own terms belie Wilson's rule. At the time he told Daisy this, FDR was considering whether to run for a fourth term. He did, then died in 1945. Vice President Harry S Truman completed his term, then was elected in 1948.
So:
1933-1953, Liberals in the White House
1953-1961, Conservative D.D. Eisenhower
1961-1969, Liberals JFK and LBJ
1969-1977, Conservatives Nixon and Ford
1977-1981, Liberal Jimmy Carter
1984-1993, Conservatives Reagan and G.H.W. Bush (coff!)
1993-2001, Liberal Clinton
2001-2009, Conservative Bush (coff again!)
2009-now, Ultra, Far-Left Obama
I don't discern a two-thirds/one-third pattern here. But I still hope Wilson is right.
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