{"id":1981,"date":"2009-12-03T05:24:27","date_gmt":"2009-12-03T10:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2009-12-03T05:56:02","modified_gmt":"2009-12-03T10:56:02","slug":"clinton-i%e2%80%94redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/12\/03\/clinton-i%e2%80%94redux\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinton I\u2014Redux?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1982\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1982\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982 \" title=\"bill-clinton-and-barack-obama\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/files\/2009\/12\/bill-clinton-and-barack-obama.jpg\" alt=\"Obama &amp; Clinton\" width=\"400\" height=\"306\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/files\/2009\/12\/bill-clinton-and-barack-obama.jpg 400w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/files\/2009\/12\/bill-clinton-and-barack-obama-100x76.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1982\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barack Obama &amp; Bill Clinton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I made a trip south of the border yesterday. \u00a0I drove all day to South Bend, IN to drop off a proposal and had dinner in Grand Rapids, MI, so I missed <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0aJ23skfVO0\">Obama&#8217;s Afghanistan speech<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t miss hearing the fallout from both the left and the right. \u00a0So, I&#8217;m wondering about what&#8217;s going to happen in next year&#8217;s midterm elections and I&#8217;m curious on what my fellow bloggers and the readers have on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s turn back the clock. \u00a0Sixteen years ago, in late November of 1993 and Bill Clinton&#8217;s approval rating dipped under 50%. \u00a0Recently, Barack Obama&#8217;s ratings also dipped below 50%. \u00a0This got me thinking about some other trivia tidbits::<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A complex health care reform plan was under attack by William Kristol. \u00a0The <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Harry_and_Louise\">&#8220;Harry and Louise&#8221; <\/a><\/strong>ads, funded by lobbyists aired to cast doubt on Clinton&#8217;s reform, using the catchy phrase, &#8220;they choose, we lose.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><object classid=\"d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/CwOX2P4s-Iw&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Clinton, a moderate Democrat, was being pushed around by conservative Democrats in Congress. \u00a0They felt he didn&#8217;t have a mandate with 43% of the popular vote [<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/news\/politics\/51570\/index3.html\">1<\/a><\/strong>] and won only because Ross Perot split the Republican vote.<\/li>\n<li>The Democrats enjoyed an 82 seat advantage in the House in 1993. \u00a0The current margin is 79 seats. \u00a0The Democrats had a 56\/44 advantage in 1993. \u00a0The current advantage is \u00a059\/41.<\/li>\n<li>The stock market was on an upswing in 1993 {DJIA}. \u00a0This year, the market has spent the year recovering and is about where it was in 2004 [<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/stockcharts.com\/charts\/historical\/djia1900.html\">2<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand::<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unemployment was 6.5% in December 1993, not 10.2% {Nov. 2009} [<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/research.stlouisfed.org\/fred2\/data\/UNRATE.txt\">3<\/a><\/strong>]<\/li>\n<li>The Gulf War {Desert Storm} was a fading memory in 1993, while in 2009 Obama is gearing up for a Afghanistan surge at a $30B\/year pricetag.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Historically, in 1994 there was a Republican landslide and the GOP took over both the House and Senate {although Clinton won re-election handily in 1996}. \u00a0Will history repeat itself? \u00a0I&#8217;m not sure. \u00a0In 1994, there was a clear and concerted effort by the Republicans. \u00a0Newt Gingrich and the <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Contract_with_america\">&#8220;Contract with America&#8221;<\/a><\/strong> captured the imagination of many voters. \u00a0I&#8217;m not sure the GOP can pull that off in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>While the Obama Administration has faced criticism from the right, he&#8217;s also under fire from the left on the issues of the economy and the war in Afghanistan. \u00a0While the Democratic Party machine would resist this, will the current circumstances provide opportunities for left-leaning Congressional candidates a rare window of opportunity? \u00a0What about the Republicans? \u00a0Will they regroup? \u00a0What about Libertarians? \u00a0Is this an opportunity for them?<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"404\" height=\"150\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"window\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"hostname=cowbell.grooveshark.com&amp;widgetID=17700397&amp;style=metal&amp;bbg=000000&amp;bfg=666666&amp;bt=FFFFFF&amp;bth=000000&amp;pbg=FFFFFF&amp;pbgh=666666&amp;pfg=000000&amp;pfgh=FFFFFF&amp;si=FFFFFF&amp;lbg=FFFFFF&amp;lbgh=666666&amp;lfg=000000&amp;lfgh=FFFFFF&amp;sb=FFFFFF&amp;sbh=666666&amp;p=0\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/listen.grooveshark.com\/widget.swf\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p><strong>Twitterversion::<\/strong> Politically in the US, it feels strangely familiar to 1993.But,it&#8217;s not. What will happen in 2010 midterms? #ThickCulture http:\/\/url.ie\/3d5n\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/Prof_K\">@Prof_K<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I made a trip south of the border yesterday. \u00a0I drove all day to South Bend, IN to drop off a proposal and had dinner in Grand Rapids, MI, so I missed Obama&#8217;s Afghanistan speech. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t miss hearing the fallout from both the left and the right. \u00a0So, I&#8217;m wondering about what&#8217;s going to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[210,729,2139,2138,131,2140,1139,2137,317],"class_list":["post-1981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afghanistan","tag-barack-obama","tag-bill-clinton","tag-celebration-guns","tag-economy","tag-harry-louise","tag-healthcare","tag-the-stars","tag-war"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1984,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions\/1984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}