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A Hopeful Thought for Despondent Republicans

November 7, 2008 by GayPatriotWest

Twenty years ago, George H.W. Bush won the White House with a popular vote majority similar to that Barack Obama achieved this week, but with a much larger total in the electoral college.  Four years later, he was defeated with the smallest popular vote percentage of any incumbent president in U.S. history.

Filed Under: 2008 Presidential Politics, American History

Comments

  1. V the K says

    November 7, 2008 at 1:43 pm - November 7, 2008

    I hear a lot of Obamunists crowing “permanent Democrat majority,” and if they succeed with flooding the country with enough illegal immigrants and getting enough people dependent on government… meh… they may get it. And though that will ultimately be a disaster for America, but it won’t make me despondent. I’ll still have faith and family, and I’ll just do the best I can like those poor folks in Cuba, Zimbabwe and Michigan (where Obamunism got a head start).

    I am saddened that under racial socialism, my kids will never have as much economic opportunity as I have had.

  2. Ignatius says

    November 7, 2008 at 2:48 pm - November 7, 2008

    Tip O’Neill said something to the effect that Democratic Party policies worked so well, people became Republicans. One could say the same of American foreign policy, particularly economic/trade policy with respect to our economic satellites and allies. Though pessimistic, one road to our future might take us to the point where we need to relearn our economic past from those we once taught. Rather than hope for greater liberty from domestic political leaders, we may have to rely on economic pressure from abroad such as brain drain and/or entrepreneurs leaving the United States for freer climes in Australia, Ireland, Hong Kong, and Chile, greater respect for property rights and taxation rates that don’t rise to punitive levels, and a discourse not infected with the worship of socialism that will be, at the time, in its adolescence. We might regard our Founding Fathers as a curiousity, our documents an anachronism, but there may yet be places in the world that will enshrine them. There will be a natural pressure of an allegiance to ideas, not to geography.

  3. Right Turn says

    November 7, 2008 at 4:11 pm - November 7, 2008

    Under Obama, we can pretty much say goodbye to any sane immigration policy.

  4. ThatGayConservative says

    November 7, 2008 at 4:28 pm - November 7, 2008

    “permanent Democrat majority,”

    The same folks who used to piss and moan about a Republican majority and, allegedly, no checks and balances???

    Nah. The liberals will do the fair thing and spread the wealth of their votes among those less fortunate.

  5. Johnny says

    November 7, 2008 at 6:13 pm - November 7, 2008

    Another thoughtful hope, no President who’s highest previous qualificaion is Senator has won re-election.

    Of the 3 Senators-turned-President who did win a second term, Jackson and Monroe were previously Governors and Nixon was VP for 8 years.

    (Clearly, I’d consider Governor of any state to be a better qual than Senator.)

  6. Attmay says

    November 7, 2008 at 9:05 pm - November 7, 2008

    Keep in mind there was no cult of personality around George H.W. Bush, and he had already served as head of the CIA in the 1970s and Vice-President for 8 years. There was no cloud of mystery around him.

  7. Rhodium Heart says

    November 8, 2008 at 1:47 am - November 8, 2008

    Nerd-like correction. GHW Bush did not get the lowest share of the popular vote of any incumbent president in history. The correct answer is William Howard Taft, in 1912, got 23 percent of the popular vote, and a mere 8 electoral votes (those twin states of Vermont and Utah!). That was the election where Woodrow Wilson won an electoral college landslide (435) despite getting only 42 percent of the popular vote, due to Teddy Roosevelet’s Bull Moose campaign.

    Poppy Bush did bad in 1992, getting only 38 percent of the vote (to Clinton’s 43), and 168 electoral votes, but he did much better than Big Bill.

  8. V the K says

    November 8, 2008 at 11:38 am - November 8, 2008

    New Zealand elects a center-right government. At least other countries still have some sense.

  9. Nurglitch says

    November 9, 2008 at 4:23 pm - November 9, 2008

    Forgive me, but how exactly does George H.W. Bush’s single-term presidency cheer up despondent Republicans? Shouldn’t you be talking about President Carter’s failed Democatic administration? I would have thought that reminder of past Democratic failures would be more cheering than a reminder of past Republican failures for Republican partisans.

  10. windybon says

    November 12, 2008 at 12:24 pm - November 12, 2008

    test

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