Who Wanted Those Lousy Grapes Anyway?

Okay, I was wrong. There was a Bradley effect, but it was only about five points; not enough to pull McCain past Obama.

Let's try sour grapes. Some have said that winning this time is a poisoned chalice. I hope they're wrong, but if we are facing prolonged economic troubles, it will scuff up the Obama presidency and Democratic ascendancy pretty quickly.

In 1929, we had a similar, albeit so far much worse, financial crisis. In reaction, the Canadian people quickly threw out the Liberal government, and elected the Conservatives under RB Bennett. In the US, though, the next presidential election was not until 1932. As a result, Herbert Hoover and the Republicans got tarred forever with blame for the Depression, as things just got worse for the first three or four years.

In Canada, though, Bennett and the Conservatives were ultimately blamed, even though they tried all of the same “New Deal” policies that Roosevelt did, the Liberals returned to power in the next election, were credited with the eventual recovery, and held on for 23 more years.

If we are facing a similar period, the Democrats may now be left holding the bag; they are in Bennett's position. They may have been given just enough rope this time to hang themselves.

I have also long thought that the oughts are the Sixties run in reverse. Clinton was Eisenhower, Reagan was FDR, and the election of 2008 is the election of 1968 rerun.

That makes Obama Nixon.

If so, his presidency may well end in tears. And the Nixon presidency did not swing the nation to the right; instead, it marked the years in which the new left really took hold, in all areas of the culture.

So it may be now, for the new right.