http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/02/zelizer.midterms.partisan.gridlock/index.html
Monday, November 8, 2010
Is it 1994 all over again?
I picked this topic because we have been talking about the elections of the 1990's for a few weeks now, and we should be getting more in depth with this one fairly soon. The article starts off talking about last weeks elections, with the Republicans gaining the majority in the house again over the Democrats, who had the majority in 2006 and 2008. The article then goes into depth about how the same thing happened in the 1994 election, instantly drawing comparisons. The republicans went into an investigation of the Clinton allegations, missing out on cues that Osama Bin Laden had made and it ultimately divided the house, making the legislative more difficult. The author believes that it happeneing again, and that house decisions will be harder than ever based on a split congress. The article goes further into Obama's decisions, trying to compare them and justify them like Clintons, but the author ultimately says that Obama will have the harder time because "After all, many liberals are already frustrated with the kinds of compromises Obama has made. Going too far -- for example, declaring that the era of big government is over -- could trigger a challenge to the president in the Democratic primaries."
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While I do agree that Obama will have a difficult time in the next few years I also think that much like Clinton it could benefit him overall. People are frustrated with him this is true but being the communicator that he is I think he just might be able to swing enough Republicans by agreeing to policies that may go against his original ideals while at the same time gaining support. It was being said almost immediately once the Republicans took over that Obama has never really been a “true Democrat” and so it will be interesting but one thing that has been shown was that Clinton, Truman, and Roosevelt lost this many and still were elected. Whether or not he is reelected is going to be put entirely on the Republican opponent because there is probably only one Democrat with the power and well quite frankly guts to oppose him in a primary: Hillary Clinton.
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