Quote:
Originally Posted by Tex
I imagine the honeymoon will be short. The guy has promised you the moon.
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Can you point me to any presidential candidate in our lifetimes (use mine, for maximum coverage) who didn't overpromise?
Some more than others, to be sure. I remember Carter doing so in '76, and W did so in 2000. A few days ago, I came across an e-mail from a friend from my youth. He was a rabid liberal in high school and he and I would go at it all the time. Sometime after his years at Cal, he took a huge right turn. A few days before the 2000 election I expressed serious misgivings about W, even though I ended up voting for him. My erstwhile friend sent me the following reassuring e-mail a few days before that election:
"I'll get back to you tomorrow, but hang in there with my man Dubya. He'll do just fine. Remember what a bonehead we former liberals all thought Reagan was, but by the time he ran for President he got my vote twice. Same with GeorgeW -- he is more conservative than his father, and is
only toning down his message because the press wants him to look like a fire-breather. Wait until he gets in with a Republican Congress -- let's see, a flat tax (or consumption), IRS restriction, school vouchers, prayer allowed at football games, three or four right-thinking justices on the Supreme Court, a rebuilt military (and get rid of all women, they're warriors godammit), etc. How's that for starters? We have never had this condition in our or our parents' lifetimes - Republican President and Congress. Please don't give up hope. We can do it." A prophet my friend was not.
On the other hand, I had to smile at a news report this morning that Obama has put together a team whose principal function is to lower expectations for his first term. Duh. Ironically, Sarah Palin would require no such team.