1984 Redux
No, not Morning in America, Reagan's landslide reelection campaign. Early on, Barack Obama planned to mimic the Reagan reelect strategy but reality failed to bend to the president's will; a huge surprise to nearly everyone with an Ivy League degree. According to leftist mythology, President Reagan's first-term reversal of seemingly inevitable American decline was dumb luck: The business cycle is inevitable; downturns give way to rebounds; and the steeper the recession the more robust the recovery.
Barack Obama aimed to govern as the Anti-Reagan and coast to reelection on the business cycle, earning decades of Big Government brand-equity with the electorate.
Sometimes reality bites. Hard.
But there is at least one noteworthy comparison between October 2012 and 1984. Tune into the homestretch pitch from today's post-Clinton Democrats, with chief Obamanomics salesman Joe Biden wielding his trademark fingernail-across-blackboard candor.
I am old enough to remember the last politician to try this approach this directly: The year was 1984 and the candidate Walter Mondale.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: 1984 Redux
Fine insight. Mondale was always awful, but rarely that oblivious.
I just shake my head at the decades we have had Biden dragged across the Sunday shows, as the voice of authority on matters foreign policy. The media can neither run, nor hide, from their creations. Both Biden and Obama.
May '10
Re: 1984 Redux
"....all that money going to the super wealthy."
It never ceases to amaze me how leftists seem to truly believe that the money belongs first to the government, and then they give it back to people when there are tax cuts. I mean, they actually think that is how it works. It does not appear to cross their minds that people make that money, that it is their money in the first place, before it ix taxed by the government.
Paul Ryan will no doubt try to school him in the debate next week, as Mitt tried with Obama last night on taxes and growth, but these leftists just don't get it. And they never will.
Feb '11
Re: 1984 Redux
Before I saw this video (just now), I’d always thought that Mondale had said that he would raise our taxes in order to, well, do good things. That’s why Democrats want their taxes raised. They think the government will do good things with the money. But the clip above suggests Mondale was saying something a little tamer — namely, that taxes are going to need to be raised for mathematical reasons. (Even Reagan will have to raise your taxes.) There’s a virtue in honesty, in telling hard truths, and it looks like Mondale was trying to win merit for telling a hard truth.
Biden’s comment strikes me as far dumber than Mondale’s, both in terms of policy and in terms of politics.
Apr '12
Re: 1984 Redux
Yes, those were the days and these are the days. Revel in them, my friends. God is being good to us. He has provided us Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Jun '10
Re: 1984 Redux
SMatthewStolte:
Biden’s comment strikes me as far dumber than Mondale’s, both in terms of policy and in terms of politics. · 4 hours ago
I wish that were so, but I'm afraid Biden's remarks are much better politics that Mondale's.
Mondale said he would raise taxes. Voters thought "I don't want to pay more taxes, I'd better vote for Reagan."
Biden is saying "the GOP will raise taxes on the middle class. We will make the super-rich pay for everything. Don't worry, we won't raise your taxes."