Scary to contemplate how bad a second Obama term will be. The key point of this article is that despite a horrible second term, FDR was able to hold onto his coalition and be elected to a third and fourth term.
by John Steele Gordon
Barack Obama brings to 16 the number of presidents elected to a second term. The total is 18 if you include Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who were elected only once but had served nearly four years of a predecessor’s term. Mr. Obama would be well advised to consider the history of these second terms. Its message is to beware of interpreting re-election as an invitation to overreach.
The considerable majority of second terms were far less successful than the first. Some were disastrous. Only James Monroe, Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt got through it with their reputations intact or enhanced. Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in his second term for negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
Even George Washington, almost an American saint in his lifetime, was savagely criticized in his second term. He caused outrage by signing the Jay Treaty, which was ratified in 1796. This trade agreement with Britain enraged Jeffersonians, who favored France in European squabbles and thought the treaty bolstered the rival Federalists.
Abraham Lincoln and William McKinley were assassinated only six weeks and six months into their second terms. The only other presidential second term to end prematurely was Richard Nixon’s.
But consider this when thinking of Nixon’s Watergate disgrace: Harry Truman, after firing the insubordinate but revered Gen. Douglas MacArthur and failing to win the stalemated Korean War, was so unpopular by the last year of his presidency that his approval rating sank as low as 22%, lower than Nixon’s when he resigned (24%).
Ronald Reagan became ensnared in the Iran-Contra scandal in his second term and Bill Clinton was impeached (but not convicted) for perjury and obstruction of justice in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Ulysses Grant’s second term was mired in even worse scandals than those that plagued his first. Grant himself was honest, but he was notably loyal to his friends, who often were not.
Grant’s personal secretary, Orville Babcock, was deeply corrupt and involved in the so-called whiskey ring, where a group of federal officials connived with distilleries to siphon millions of dollars in federal liquor taxes. Babcock was tried for his part in the scandal and Grant gave a deposition at the trial, the only time a sitting president has done so in a criminal proceeding. Given that a deep recession had started only six months after Grant’s second inauguration (an economic decline that would last six years), it isn’t surprising that Grant became so unpopular.
Thomas Jefferson’s first term, marked by the Louisiana Purchase, had been a great success and he was easily re-elected. But in his second term he initiated one of the most bizarre policies in American (or, indeed, world) history and paid a terrible political price.
Both Britain and France had been harassing American merchant ships, seizing them and, in the case of Britain, impressing sailors into the Royal Navy. Hoping to force Britain and France to honor American rights, Jefferson pushed the Embargo Act through Congress in 1807. It forbade trade with the European powers and the U.S. Navy was deployed to, in effect, blockade American ports.
The act was very unpopular in all of the country’s port cities. But it was especially so in New England, where shipping and shipbuilding were the largest industries. Talk of secession rose as New England’s economy fell into a deep depression. [.........]
Franklin Roosevelt also politically overstepped in his second term. Triumphantly re-elected in 1936 but frustrated that much of his economic policy had been stymied by the Supreme Court, FDR proposed to “pack” the court by appointing an extra justice for every justice on the bench who was over age 70½. Roosevelt pushed hard for the bill, even giving one of his fireside chats about it in March 1937. But the bill was seen as tampering with the fundamental constitutional balance among the three branches of government.
Without public support, Roosevelt could not push the bill through Congress, even though both houses had huge Democratic majorities. When the recovery stalled later that year and the economy began to sink back into depression, Roosevelt’s popularity nose-dived. Still, his coalition secured his third and fourth terms, and success in wartime revived his reputation.
Perhaps the saddest second term was Woodrow Wilson’s. The income tax, the Federal Reserve and the Clayton Antitrust Act were passed in his first administration. Narrowly re-elected in 1916 on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” Wilson asked for a declaration of war only a month into his second term. When the war was won, Wilson sailed for Europe in December 1918 to personally negotiate the peace treaty. He was away for almost seven months (with one brief return), by far the longest time a sitting president has been out of the country.
[..........]
Instead he went on a countrywide speaking tour to build public support for the treaty and get the necessary two-thirds vote in the Senate. The effort proved too much for him and he collapsed in September 1919, while in Pueblo, Colo. A week later a serious stroke left him partially paralyzed and blind in one eye.
His wife, Ellen, essentially became the acting president, shielding him from his cabinet and even the vice president, deciding what he would deal with and what would be left to others. Wilson recovered enough to be able to walk with a cane, but his old vigor was gone. He was a wrecked man.
Second terms are hazardous affairs at best. But no modern president is likely to suffer the humiliation that James Madison experienced in 1814 during his second term. That was when the British invaded the country and burned the nation’s capital.
Read the rest - The peril of second terms
Tags: John Steele Gordon
Thank God Obama won’t be able to run for a Third Term, but will he pass his Presidency off to Joe the Biden? That isn’t a trivial question, because Biden is even more incompetant than Obama. The American people seem to have accepted that a Less is More approach to the economy is acceptable, so saying that the economy will be in the shitter in 2016 is no guarantee that Biden won;’t be elected President. We are in the twilight of America, and nothing is impossible except getting out from under our debt.
Obama’s second term is starting just great -- Petraeus, “fiscal cliff”, Middle East, Wall Street -- yeah really great.
Iron Fist wrote:
I wold not be surprised if the talk about repealing the 22nd amendment.
Obama’s presser yesterday indicated he’s going to be the same, arrogant, combative prick in his second term that he was in his first, only more so.
Iron Fist wrote:
“Nothing is impossibe” used to be an expression of optimism, now it’s quite the opposite. Change!
@ Speranza:
Speaking of Wall Street…
The blue-chip measure has fallen in five of the six trading sessions since Election Day, shedding 5.1% in that time frame. On Wednesday, the Nasdaq Composite fell 37.08 points, or 1.3%, to 2846.81, its lowest closing level since June 25. As recently as mid-September, the Nasdaq was up 22% on the year and trading at 12-year highs. Since hitting a 52-week high on Sept. 14, it has tumbled 11%, including a 5.5% slide since the election on Nov. 6.
Oops…
@ Speranza:
You can’t get a Constitutional Amendment through our divided Congress, let alone get the requisit number of States to sign onto it. I am not worried about that in the least. Oh, no doubt Obama would like to do it, and the Democrats would go along in a heartbeat, but th eGOP controls something like 33 of the State Houses in America today. A Constitutional Amendment isn’t happening.
@ MikeA:
Teh Ebil Rich are pulling their money out of the stock market in preparation ofor Capital Gains tax to go up next year. I would be too, if I had any money in the market. Likewise, the market is just getting ready for the next round of recession that is coming courtesy of those tax increases. Obama will have his tax increases, though. He is holding the entire economy hostage to them. Republicans need to be playing offense against this evil motherfucker, but I am convinced that the Republican Mandarins are quite content to b the Loyal Opposition as long as they get invited to the right parties in Washington. That is part of our problem.
@ Iron Fist:
Me thinks your solution of hemp rope might be needed…
@ MikeA:
That’s Dorian’s solution, though I agree it is generally a good Idea. Thomas Jefferson said:
Time for some tyrant’s blood, because the tree of liberty has grown weak and sickly in America. Sadly, I don’t think that will come about until the current crop of tyrants have crashed the American economy and plunged us into a new Dark Age.
Obama still takes the attitude “I won”.
@ Speranza:
SNAFU
I am scared to imagine what Obama’s second term will look like.
Speranza wrote:
Nazi Germany?
Speranza wrote:
Speranza wrote:
bulked up a tad with Kevlar I imagine
Storagemanager wrote:
That’s a bit of a stretch -- Poland 1968 is more like it.
Speranza wrote:
Rome after the death of Julius Caesar
Speranza wrote:
Mecca?
You now what? Most people really did not give a crap about Iran-Contra. When Reagan left in January 1989 his popularity was sky high.
Storagemanager wrote:
Don’t be silly -- like the Social Democracies in Europe.
Speranza wrote:
Tell that to the stockholders of businesses who fell out of favor with the regime.
Rep. Tim Scott (S.C. and a black man by the way) says that the GOP should not fall on its sword protecting the wealthy (most of whom voted for Obama anyway). I agree with him.
@ lobo91:
Be careful with comparisons to Nazi Germany.
Speranza wrote:
You’ll activate the Moonbat signal.
Obamas second term will be the weimar republic
If Susan Rice can’t defend herself against criticism of her talking points, how the heck can she represent the United States’ interests in talks with other countries?
He’s not sworn in yet and it’s already a disaster.
@ Rodan:
Quote of the day. Unfortunately for the country.
@ Speranza:
He’s right.
livefreeor die wrote:
Elections have consequences.
Speranza wrote:
I’m not the one who made it.
I just pointed out that it’s not entirely incorrect. We’re definitely headed toward a NAZI/fascist economic model under this administration.
Rodan wrote:
Even for those of us who knew better!
Had not heard, Obama is going to serve a second term, what did he get convicted of this time?
@ livefreeor die:
Even? I’d say especially for those of us who knew better.
We’re the ones getting screwed, after all.
@ lobo91:
Absolutely Obama is using Fascist/Nazi/3rd Way/State Capitalism/3rd World Economics.
The Democrats still won’t comitt to doing a budget:
That alone should have cost the Democrats the Senate, but the Republicans inexplicably didn’t run against that. I am convinced that the top brass in the Republican Party are completely satisfied to be the Opposition Party a long as they don’t have to be too strenuous about their opposition and are still invitedto all the right parties in Washington.
ps
What would a stand alone B. Obama look like any how?
taxfreekiller wrote:
taxfreekiller wrote:
Impersonating a head of state.
Hon, Susan is just some one I work with…..
You heard I did what?????
Just because I defend a co-worker does not mean I’m like that dam Gen. ….
What e-mail from what computer?????
Hon,,,,???? where you going….
@ Storagemanager:
That’s the more accurate comparison. We’re going to have more debt to GDP than the Weimar Republic by the end of it, though. And we all remember how wonderfully that worked out…
lobo91 wrote:
Alot of people we know who voted for 0 will be in real financial trouble from his policies before we are. Don’t get me wrong, he’ll screw us all he can but alot of the sheeple are going to suffer from another helping of 0.
Come back, Come back,,,,, Hon,,,,,,,,!!!!
“Vallllllllllll”"”" you said it would not matter to her…………….”
@ taxfreekiller:
As if…
Now, if Susan Rice had a good looking husband…
But,,, but,,,, I can’t cook…….Hon!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ Rodan:
Look at what happened with the Delphi pensions. Union retirees had their pensions protected. Non-union retirees lost theirs.
Substitute “party members” for “union members” and what does that sound like?
Obama thinks his sheeple will be his battering ram to ram the final commie crap through.
He has no clue about the ones who did not vote..
They are not on his side by any strech.
They have other means to get their point across and will use them.
@ Rodan:
Funny I said that the morning after. They begin by dictating the health system, then they nationalize the unions (card check?), the military leadership is already jumping at their own shadows. Patraeus, Allen (next?). The Benghazi affair needs to produce fruit and quickly.
@ taxfreekiller:
Amen.
@ lobo91:
1920′s Italy, 1930′s Germany, 1950′s Cuba, 2000′s Venezuela.
Please…not Debbie Schlussel now…
Petraeus.
@ bluliner10:
I don’t think anything will come out of Benghazi. The press is an arm of the regime. We are not a free nation anymore.
@ Rodan:
Media is controlled
Education is controlled
Health is controlled
Employment to be controlled…
Maybe AMTRAK will run on time
Rodan wrote:
Actually, they’re both arms of the international socialist movement.
@ Rodan:
Yeah, I am following you…
@ Storagemanager:
Debbie Schlussel is a whack job.
@ bluliner10:
Obviously, it’s an imperfect analogy…
Iron Fist wrote:
What would stop him? Did someone decide to start following the US Constitution again?
Speranza wrote:
She’s like the anti-Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Put the two of them together and the world will probably be destroyed.
Storagemanager wrote:
Bammy is going to be pissed-this will really screw up the golf he had planned for this weekend.
@ bluliner10:
At least Il Duce did that right!
bluliner10 wrote:
@ Rodan:
Eactly. Benghazi is a dead end. Not because there isn’t a scandal there. It makes Watergate look like a minor burglary. But the MFM is totally incurious about what happened there. Fox News alone can’t carry the water for the Socialist-Media Complex.
@ CzechRebel:
I’m pretty sure they sold it on eBay to help pay for Obama’s campaign.
bluliner10 wrote:
It’s sad you joined the military when the Communists were an external enemy. Now they run our country. Who won the Cold war?
lobo91 wrote:
Wait until you see what they’ll sell to cover the cost of Queen Michelle’s second round jubilee.
Iron Fist wrote:
I will do a post how the media is the 800 Pound Gorilla in the room. Yes the GOP needs to change some things, but until media bias is addressed, it will only help on the margins.
@ lobo91:
@ CzechRebel:
Deval Patrick will be Obama’s anointed successor. Mark my words.
@ livefreeor die:
Texas?
Wow…just WOW
Speranza wrote:
Why don’t you two compromise? Agree that it will be like Poland during Nazi occupation . . . if we are lucky.
Iron Fist wrote:
I disagree…money talks and the MSM will follow the viewership when they smell blood…be patient weedhoppa
@ Storagemanager:
Never mind the fact that since the Democrats refused to actually pass a budget, nothing the Republicans did or didn’t do actually made any difference.
I think this Benghazi affair is a crucible; should the ruth not be uncovered, we’ll know that we’ve reached a level of executive opacity heretofore unknown in the United States.
Speranza wrote:
Sort of a Debbie Wasserman Schlussel, if you know what I mean.
Maybe the two of them should mudwrestle on cable.
@ lobo91:
Hey, lobo—some stuff at the end of the Romney thread you should see.
@ heysoos:
Not likely. The broadcast networks won’t cross the administration, because they know what can be done to them if they do.
And CNN and MSNBC are dedicated left-wing propadanda outlets already.
That basically leaves Fox News all by itself to cover this…which is exactly what’s happening.
My three year old just came in from “helping” the hubby outside. Off to my day job!
@ buzzsawmonkey:
I think they’re more like matter and anti-matter.
Bringing them together would likely destroy the world.
MacDuff wrote:
agreed, and what better opportunity would ever present itself?…with Benghazi, all the elements are in place, death and destruction, the highest ranking officials, dereliction, sex, deceit etc…this has to be it, and I think it will be
lobo91 wrote:
Too bad both of them aren’t just doesn’t-matter.
lobo91 wrote:
don’t discount the will of the people…they love sex, blood and guts and may surprise you yet…Benghazi is just getting up to speed
heysoos wrote:
It’s like the unholy hybrid of a Tom Clancy/Jacqueline Suzanne novel.
MacDuff wrote:
life mimics art
MacDuff wrote:
What you are seeing is a cult of personality. Obama could shot someone on TV and people will support him.
@ heysoos:
Network news loses money. That’s reality.
@ Rodan:
Chris Matthews would praise his marksmanship skills.
@ Rodan:
BO does not represent or speak for everyone, regardless of these phony elections…I’m saying it’s premature to blow Libya off and call it for BO…it’s a long way from there so we should look at as detached as possible, rather than with runaway emotion….it’s NOT done yet and predictions are worthless
lobo91 wrote:
That’s “Marxmanship,” I think.
lobo91 wrote:
I’m gonna wait and see what shakes out…if you know the future and you claim to, then I’m gonna move aside and let you preach
@ lobo91:
You know it. He will claim the victim was racist and had it coming.
Rodan wrote:
Ronald Reagan won the Cold War and there are a lot of people in Eastern Europe who are very thankful. I have a friend who went back to his native Poland for a visit. His little town has a nice new statue of the town’s hero, Ronald Reagan.
@ 63 lobo91: I’ve read good stuff and bad stuff by her.She has a polarity going on.
heysoos wrote:
For you:
@ CzechRebel:
It’s ironic that The US is now the Leftist Marxist power and Russia is the Capitalist-Christian power. WTF happened?
darkwords wrote:
She’s clinically insane.
She may occasionally come up with something accidentally, but she’s still a nut.
Speranza wrote:
She’s had a nervous breakdown.
@ 74 Storagemanager Obama could have still supported the Seals and decided not to.
Rodan wrote:
Is she still engaged in her jihad against Sean Hannity?
I refuse to click on her site to see.
@ lobo91:
GMTA see my 101.
@ CzechRebel:
And isn’t it Washington State that has a statue of Lenin? We have our traitors over here. Large numbers of them. Not just people who have sold out for a buck, but working-for-the-other-side traitors.
@ lobo91:
Yes she hates Hannity, Limbaug, Rubio, Jindal and others. She is gloating that Romney lost and we deserve what we are getting.
Dennis Miller:
Iron Fist wrote:
Yes, there’s a statue of Lenin in a park in Seattle.
@ Iron Fist:
22 years after the cold war end:
Eastern Europe and Russia are Capitalist
Western Europe and America are Marxist/Socialist.
Irony of history?
@ 100 lobo91: I’ve dealt with the clinically insane. Their noise to reality ratio is just a lot higher.
One might weight their opinions if one has the bandwidth but in general one wouldn’t depend on them.
Accuracy.
Iron Fist wrote:
Actually, I think we have more than one and yes, I think one of them may be in Seattle.
What happens when it isn’t “Earned”, Speranza?
I used to work for a millionaire. Whenever he saw a cigarette butt on the ground he would pick it up and throw it away.
Two lessons;
1. No piece of work is too little to do.
2. A better world is fixed by a good example.
Vote Fraud is like cigarette butt.
@ Rodan:
It is a surprise. And now, after four more years of Obama, it looks like America is the one who is going to have economic collapse. It didn’t have to be this way.
lobo91 wrote:
agreed…when I think about the personalities of our elected officials I about stroke…Our Gang is running this country…consider the team effort during WW2 or the unbelievable accomplishment of going to the moon, as opposed to the stupid, half wits we elect in these times of devolution….our gov is mostly idiots…no direction, no sense of responsibility, no clue how to lead and think long term…these people see a huge pie on the table and drool over their slice….then they distance themselves and consider their re-election…if we are doomed, that’s why…it’s not Latinos or Catholics or Southerners…it’s all of us, it’s about celebrity
@ 111 MacDuff: There is a statue of Lenin 5 miles from me in the Fremont district of Seattle.
@ 115 heysoos:EArlier post about IQ test. We do need a wisdom test for people running for office.
waldensianspirit wrote:
Eventually, democracy is no more than glorified mob rule and if November 6 wasn’t a perfect example of that, I don’t know what is.
darkwords wrote:
hmm, that’d lend itself to all kinds of mischief
@ darkwords:
I used to work for Paul Allen.
Complete and total asshole.
darkwords wrote:
I wonder if it’s an issue of the wisdom of the candidate as much as it is the wisdom of the electorate.
Rodan wrote:
I can remember Paul Harvey predicting this back in the 1980s and maybe even the 1970s. “The USA and the USSR will someday cross like ships in the night.” Not sure that is an exact quote.
But, I think the real answer is the difference between the people. Russia became a Christian country in 988. Although, still technically under Communism in 1988, Russia celebrated 1,000 years of Christianity. (Believe me, in 1988, I was laughing pretty hard.)
While the Soviets may have controlled the government and the propaganda machine, they never got to the hearts of the Orthodox Christian people of Russia. The kids got one story at school and a different one at home, from parents and grand parents.
Orthodox Christianity strives under oppression. It has for nearly 2,000 years. I have a good friend, born here in Dixieland, but living in Moscow since the late 1980s. I know even more people who have visited Russia. The Russian people are building churches like they are going out of style.
Can you honestly imagine the Christianity that we see in the US surviving three or four generations of atheist oppression?
my older sister used to gush over Elvis…she touched him, she has his sweat stained scarf, all the books, records and trips to Graceland…actually made me queezy and profoundly suspect….famous people are just people for whatever reason…I’ve known famous people and even they don’t understand it…we have to raise the bar in terms of quality leadership…we have to hold these people responsible…this celeb/pol worship angle is gonna kill us…stay focused
@ heysoos:
I remember the first time I met Gary Johnson.
I was standing next to him at the urinal in the men’s room of the Marriott in Albuquerque.
@ Iron Fist:
4 bad Presidents since Reagan does that.
@ CzechRebel:
heck we are barely surviving now!
@ Speranza:
Won’t pass the House and I don’t think 3/4ths of the states will vote for an amendment to give Jerk the Wonder Prez a third term.
As for Biden, right now he’s a harmless “body with a grin behind it” -- I don’t think 8 years of looking like everybody’s crazy Uncle Harold who iives in a shack in swamp is going to make him a more viable candidate. And I think in four years Bammy is going to be able to neutralize the Clintons -- just like old BJ essentially neutralized the Goreacle -- he didn’t want the schmuck to be President and didn’t campaign for him. Hildebeest is going to be thoroughly discredited as in over her head for the last four years that she’ll be climbing UP Niagra Falls trying to get the nomination.
I don’t know who else they have waiting in the wings are the moment -- Steny Hoyer?
Storagemanager wrote:
Bypassing Augustus no doubt and heading for Tkiberius and Caligula with the speed of a car-pool lane.
@ Carolina Girl:
David Axelrod is planning to run Deval Patrick. He was the prototype for Obama.
lobo91 wrote:
there you have it…pols take the stage just like actors or musicians…Mick Jagger is privately a very laid back guy, but he made up this stage persona that people dig and now he’s expected to always be this frantic, strutting bad boy…a timeless story…people see politics and elections in particular as entertainment…somebody needs to change that, which is why this Libyagate thing is so important…it’s reality vs fantasy
Carolina Girl wrote:
Deval Patrick.
Rahm Emanuel.
Cory Booker.
heysoos wrote:
I’m not so sure Americans are that tuned in to “reality” unless it’s followed by “TV”.
@ heysoos:
Unfortunately, I’ve seen too much of the inside of what passes for journalism today.
Had Nixon been a Democrat, there would have been very little difference in how Watergate was covered, because back then, it was all about ratings/circulation and scooping the competition. Even in the ’90s, there was still a lot of that. People forget that it was the NY Times that broke the Whitewater story.
Today, though, the national media are run by the same sort of left-wing ideologues who have taken over the Democratic Party. They’re essentially all part of the same cabal.
You aren’t going to see this story pushed hard by anyone but Fox News, which means that 80% of the public will at best ignore it, and at worst, completely disregard it as being a partisan plot.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Tinkers, to Evans, to Chance…
just names plugged into the system
like
Bush, to Palin, to Mit
buncha bullshit
@ MacDuff:
Which has nothing to do with actual reality.
lobo91 wrote:
Not much on TV does.
@ Storagemanager:
Obama is Caligula.
<a href="#co_1117261" title="Go to comment of this @ bluliner10:
Maybe it will -- just in time for high-speed rail in California to require a $10 billion a year subsidy for the 25 people that will ride it once a month.
Rodan wrote:
Caligula, Domitian, Nero, Caracalla -- any one of those.
@ lobo91:
The Democrats and Obama are screaming “mandate!” but I believe Obama got something like 7 million FEWER votes this time than last and barely eeked out a 1% margin of victory. Hell, that’s not a mandate. It’s more like a “margin of error.”
Carolina Girl wrote:
Debbie “Downer” Wasserman-Schultz.
Carolina Girl wrote:
Maybe they can just raise taxes on those that voted for Obama. Those of us did not vote for him can stay as we are and be exempt from Obamacare.
Speranza wrote:
Yep a bi-goverment
Carolina Girl wrote:
Kal Penn and Reggie Love unavailable for comment…
@ Speranza:
Tax Millionaires and impose a 30% Entertainment tax on movies, music and sporting events.
Carolina Girl wrote:
When it’s within, he should be required to have Romney as his VP
@ waldensianspirit:
That’s how it used to be, as I recall. Top vote getter was President, second highest was Veep -- I would assume the reasoning being that if the President died in office, his successor would have been the second most desired candidate in the election.
Carolina Girl wrote:
It didn’t take too long to figure out that that was a bad idea.
Question. Why did Patraeus have to resign over a sex scandal when a famous revered Commander-in-Chief didn’t, and not only that also survived impeachment and is the daddy darling of his party today?
96cid wrote:
Because nobody expected anything better out of Clinton?
@ lobo91:
Petraeus is falling on the sword for Obama in return for something that is yet to be revealed. IMHO
@ 96cid:
Could be
Barack Obama would not be in this mess if it wasn’t
for his predecessor Barack Obama’[s incompetence.
@ 96cid:
To keep his pension?
New Thread.
RIX wrote:
That’s my thinking if the extramarital affair occurred while he was still General Petraeus and not the CIA chief. We don’t stone adulterers in civilian life but under the UCMJ adultery is an offense.
Carolina Girl wrote:
lobo91 wrote:
It was probably done in an effort to avoid factionalism—something that deeply concerned the Founders—and to attempt to foster national unity after the inevitable divisiveness of an election.
In a perfect world, the idea of the two opponents uniting after the contest for the good of the nation has an excellent sound; unfortunately, it is not a perfect world. It’s sort of reminiscent of the James Garner/Jack Lemmon film “My Fellow Americans,” in which two former presidents who deeply dislike each other learn respect for each other and each other’s views and come together on a unity ticket (after a series of adventures) for the good of the country.
Please drop a comment over at PJM if you like this (link in the title):
The Charge of the Light Worker
—apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
Half a bill, half a bill,
Hundreds of billions,
To the fiscal cliff of Debt—
Now sixteen trillion.
“Forward!” Light Worker said,
“Charge what we want!” he said
On the fiscal cliff of Debt,
Now sixteen trillion.
“Forward!” Light Worker said
“Though we’re deeply in the red,
I’m doing what I said
When I thrilled millions:
The Treasury my “stash,”
Green energy plans rash,
Billions in crony cash,
Off the fiscal cliff of Debt,
Now sixteen trillion.”
“Regulate industry,
Depress the economy,
Create false scarcity,
Cut back oil drilling.
Let entitlements swell;
Make our defense a shell;
Into the jaws of Debt—
How great? no one can tell—
Now sixteen trillion.”
Flush’d down fed’ral programs,
Flush’d down his healthcare scam,
Threat’ning with the taxman
Any who would protest
His road to ruin.
Heedless and unafraid,
The press acting to aid
Dissimulation
His plans had long been laid
The land to do in;
The bill came back much more
Than sixteen trillion.
“Regulate industry,
Depress the economy,
Create false scarcity,
Cut back oil drilling.
Let entitlements swell—”
That’s how a nation fell,
Freedoms tossed down a well,
Into a maw of Debt
How great, no one can tell
All we know is that it’s
Now sixteen trillion.
Would we were as we were
Ere half the land preferred
Public trough swilling.
What a profound error
To let the Light Worker
Squander our trillions!
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Phooey; posted this in the wrong thread.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
We forgive you.