[lbo-talk] Chomsky on Hersh & the leaked info he reported

Michael Hoover hooverm at scc-fl.edu
Thu Apr 20 15:21:09 PDT 2006



>>> critical.montages at gmail.com 04/19/06 6:32 PM >>>
W. is in his second term and doesn't have to hustle to get re-elected, so he probably no longer cares about his approval rating. Yoshie <<<<<>>>>>

he would be exception if he doesn't care, although modern-era 'cult of the presidency' has made legacy stuff seem more important...

presidencies tend to be shaped by 2 cycles - first is *cycle of decreasing influence*, presidents tend to lose both congressional and public support over time, some occupants of white house have tried to stave off second-term decline by acting as if they *will* be running for re-election again...

second is *cycle of increasing effectiveness*, presidents generally become better at their jobs, they have less political *capital* to work with but they tend to be make better use of whatever they have, in this regard, current president does appear to be exception...

in unlikely circumstance that bush doesn't care about his approval ratings, you can bet that republican incumbents in congress do, with few exceptions (dems picking up a few house seats in 98 when clinton presidency was in 6th year was very rare), party holding presidency loses seats in midterm elections... mh

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