Posted on 06/03/2007 5:30:23 PM PDT by Democratshavenobrains
Many people thought the election of 2004 somewhat resembled the one in 1948. For example, Truman and Bush were both Southern Presidents up for re-election who were associated with unpopular wars. Dewey and Kerry were also both thought of as elitists from the Northeast.
But it seems like this election is closely resembling the 1968 election. LBJ and Bush are not running but the wars they fought were and are still ongoing. Thankfully, Dick Cheney is not running so the Hubert Humphrey parellel doesn't exist. Many people think that if Bobby Kennedy had lived and won the nomination, he would have beaten Nixon.
So as I see it, if the Dems are able to paint the Republican nominee as Bush's lackey, like we did with Hubert Humphrey, there is a greater chance they will win.
However, the Republican base should be a little more happy with Bush than the Democratic base was with LBJ by 1968, shouldn't they? Bush has nominated good judges, managed the economy well, and at least mouthed the pieties of the Pro-Life movement. Or am I insulting Bush by even comparing him to LBJ in the first place?
Welcome to my point of view, that I’ve stated here a few times.
The Dems will be hamstrung by their Code Pink crowd in the same way that the hippies of 1968 hurt HHH’s chances against Nixon. The nominee will have to say “out now” as much as he/she can to keep them on the plantation, but then will have to prove that they’re ready to run a way.
In fact, I’ll go on record to say that Iraq killed JFKerry’s chances in the last election for exactly that same reason!
Truman was "Southern"? That seems quite a stretch. Maybe the Bootheel of extreme southeastern Missouri can be considered "Southern," but Truman was from Independence, near Kansas City, and was a pawn of the Kansas City labor union bosses. Not much "Southern" about Harry.
I live in SW MO and everyone that I’ve met south of I-70 considers themselves “southern”.
We don’t need anyone getting knocked off. The death of their political careers, but not the end of their lives. These people have families. I do hope that a Republican wins the White House though.
The Truman farm in Grandview is about 15 miles south of I-70, the Truman home in Independence is about 3 miles north.
Does he qualify?
I grew up in KC, and it seems northerners always considered us southern and southerners considered us northern or midwestern.
No way! RFK was too left-wing for America. He could only have won if Wallace had managed to siphon off more conservative votes than he did.
And a two-term Vice President with no personality who left office eight years ago is likely to win...so it is 1968 in reverse. ;)
Missouri is southern. But seeing from your handle name, I thing your are directionally challenged.
“Does he qualify?”
Heck, I don’t know. Did he eat grits?
Seriously, he must have had some southern boy in him. After all he did nuke them Jap fellers.
Missouri is Southern? That’s kind of a stretch.
What unpopular war was Truman associated with in 1948?
Yeah, but he probably would have ran more to the middle if he got the nomination.
You could say that Fred Thompson is our RFK. Except he isn’t just running on name recognition.
No
One thing that LBJ had that Bush never did was an iron fist over the legislative branch. Even when the GOP had both houses, Bush was always treated as the outsider, even by his own party. LBJ kicked legislative asses and kept long lists of names.
If the GOP loses is 2008, we did it to oursevwes by losing focus and pandering to the squishy middle.
The modern democratic party has never won an election - it’s just that the modern republican party sometimes chooses to lose by running weak candidates based on seniority or financial connections.
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