Sometimes what hurts a President or a political party is not the quality of his/their ideas so much as the timing. John Quincy Adams was a nationalist, meaning he wanted the USA to get bigger and stronger. He wanted the country to be more of a player in international affairs. Unfortunately, many people in the US at that time were more concerned about protecting the interests of their part of the nation rather than the nation as a whole. Maybe if Adams had served later in history he might have been re-elected.
Teddy Roosevelt thought a little war every now and again was good for people. He was quite popular in his day, but such thinking wouldn’t go over so well in the 21st century.
Bottom line: Americans change their mind over what kind of people they want in power. Two years ago, a majority of voters felt that Republicans had messed things up, so the public decided to give Democrats a shot. In November, we’ll see how fickle the voters are these days.
Barack Obama and congressional Democrats promised that if the stimulus bill was passed, unemployment wouldn’t rise above 8%. When that mark came and went, we were told that the main benefits of the stimulus wouldn’t be felt until 2010.
The country still hasn’t recovered.
Was it fair to expect the Democrats to pull us out of such a big hole in just a little under two years? Is it reasonable for the public to demand a new political philosophy so quickly? Is it wise to assume that Republicans learned whatever it was they were supposed to learn after being out of power for such a short period to time? Were Republicans victims of their own arrogance? Are Democrats guilty of the same thing.
We’ll see what the voters think the answers are to these questions in November.