D. Altshuler writes…
I agree with you of course that the next presidential election is a long way off and many things can and will happen between now and then. But are you really suggesting that Obama's election chances didn't just get a tremendous boost last night?
No, I think everything a President does and doesn't do affects his shot at another term. I'm just saying that the polls any minute now which will give him a big X% bump in his approval rating will be a distant memory by the time this nation votes. I always remember that sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1991 in which four prominent Democrats (Richard Gephardt, Mario Cuomo, Bill Bradley and Tipper Gore standing in for Al) debated and each argued against being the nominee of their party because whoever was was going to be crushed by George Herbert Walker Bush. This was back when those four names were being mentioned and most folks hadn't even heard of this Bill Clinton guy.
That sketch aired on November 2, 1991, which was 367 days before Bush lost…and lost rather badly to Clinton. Well, today is 554 days before America votes to see if Obama gets another term or if not, who takes over. And if anything, the news cycles have gotten more volatile with folks getting hysterical over every little thing. If Bush seemed unbeatable a year before that election, how could anything Obama did make him a shoo-in a year and a half before he stands for re-election?
What he has done though is make it a lot harder to hang things on him like "He's really on the side of the terrorists" and "He's a pussy when it comes to defense." That's not nothing…and that plus the smell of some economic recovery in the air and the Republicans' sorry slate of candidates make Obama look about as secure as anyone could look this far out. I just have this bizarre idea that something could possibly happen in the next 554 days which will have some impact, one way or the other, on the election.