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December 11, 2010

A Tale of Two Presidents

By Paul Shlichta

Once upon a time, the people of the United States elected a relatively obscure man, with little or no Federal government experience, as president. Although many nasty things were said about him, he had considerable charm, his opponent was a comparative nonentity, and the public had become fed up with the previous president and his party. In fact, the new president's party had already gained control of Congress a couple of years before.

At first, the new president and his party enacted a great deal of legislation that reflected the party's political philosophy. Eventually, however, the president fell out of popular favor because of diplomatic and military failures abroad, economic hardships at home, rumors of scandals about the conduct of the White House staff, and corruption within the president's party. These difficulties enabled the opposing party to gain control of Congress, where they fought the president on virtually every issue.

At this point, the beleaguered president began to compromise with the opposition. This led the extremists in his own party to denounce him as a turncoat while the opposing party claimed he was a dangerous usurper of power. In consequence, his popularity plummeted, political candidates within his own party began to distance themselves from him, and he became virtually ineffectual by the time his term ended.

Parts of this story fit several of our past presidents but the overall pattern seems to fit the tenure of George W. Bush. It also looks like it's going to fit Barack Obama's career like a glove. A major difference is that Bush's image deteriorated because of constant and vicious attacks by the liberal mainstream media while Obama's image decayed in spite of the best efforts of MSM to protect him. Also, it took Bush over four years to fall out of favor with the public while Obama has managed to do it in less than two. But the biggest difference is that, throughout his rise and fall, Bush managed to remain a gentleman while Obama has sunk to the level of a spiteful adolescent, giving an ugly new meaning to the biblical phrase "and a little child shall lead them."

Hat tip: Rena Shlichta
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