BLAME BUSH
Get this trial balloon:
Read this carefully.
Following up on yesterday's item on the Bush economic policies creating something akin to a lost decade, reader C.G. reminded me of this item from Jim Kessler and Anne Kim in April.
10.8% unemployment, 6.2% inflation, and a doubling of the deficit over the previous year. Those were the cold truths that President Reagan and Republicans faced in November 1982. Yet despite this bleak economic news, and widespread predictions that Republicans would lose the Senate, they retained their 54 Senate seats and limited House losses to 27 seats, many as a result of redistricting. In 2010, the shoe could be on the other foot. President Obama and congressional Democrats could be riding out the worst recession since, at least, 1982. And Republicans will be salivating at the chance to pick up seats by tying Democrats to Obama and the economy.
So, what did Republicans do in '81 and '82? Among other things, Reagan and his allies kept reminding people of why they didn't like Carter/Mondale.
Even in 1982, the economy was described as suffering from the "Carter Recession." Every bit of bad news was assigned to the previous regime; every morsel of good news was evidence of a Reagan-led recovery.
Right. "Carter Recession" was on the lips of every Republican in D.C. in the early 1980s. As a substantive matter, the label was foolish -- blaming Carter for inflation and global oil prices didn't make sense -- but the GOP needed a way to constantly remind the public (and the media) of perceived failures of the previous administration.
When Reagan's initial round of massive tax cuts failed to produce the desired results -- unemployment soared after Reagan and the GOP's plan passed -- it became all the more important to characterize Carter as the villain.
PERCEIVED FAILURES (xlation ...Carter didn't fail !!! The republicans used mirrors and some kind of advertising hypnosis, and it just looked like it).
Can anyone say MINISTRY OF TRUTH?
Then I guess if this argument is true, then it is also true that the wildly succesful economy of the 90's was a gift of the conservative foundation laid from 1980-1992, and that recession that wiped out Bush One, that was only our perception fostered by Dems thru voodoo that he couldn't manage that situation.
All I can say is that I hope like hell that these guys go out there in the next 13 months and BLAME BUSH.
CHILDREN!
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