USA Today illustrates a comparison of the 2016 election with the 2008 election with an image from 2011.
Under the headline “1,000 Days Out: Calmer Landscape for ’16 Race,” USA Today‘s Susan Page (2/10/14) begins:
The last time there was an open race for the White House, in 2008, the question could have been why anybody would want the job. The economy was sinking into the worst crisis since the Great Depression.
Whereas today things look different:
Amid early jockeying for the 2016 election—precisely 1,000 days away as of Wednesday—presidential hopefuls face what is shaping up to be a very different landscape.
The economy is recovering steadily, if slowly. Unemployment, while still troubling, is declining—to 6.6 percent last month, the lowest since October 2008. The federal budget deficit has dropped from its peak by nearly two-thirds despite the failure to reach a long-sought Grand Bargain. The auto industry has regained its footing, and big banks no longer seem threatened with collapse.
Of course, a thousand days before the 2008 election, the economic crisis that started in 2007 hadn’t happened yet. Unemployment was at 4.7 percent. The Congressional Budget Office was projecting a 2006 deficit of $337 billion—less than a quarter of what it would be in three years.
USA Today‘s Susan Page
That the actual circumstances under which candidates ran for office in 2008 didn’t at all resemble the situation in early 2006 shows the futility of trying to pontificate about elections almost three years before they happen. But that isn’t going to stop the political press corps.
In fact, Page is already predicting the policies the next president will have to pursue. Surprise! They involve cutting Social Security:
Policymakers have failed to seal a deal on the mix of politically difficult steps that a fix is likely to involve: increasing taxes, curbing benefits, raising the retirement age. The next president presumably will no longer have the option of delay.
It’s going to be a long thousand days.
It’s going to be a long thousand days.
And thats just for today; and now we see the wisdom of the saying “And the day is like unto a thousand days”. Not that it is really a thousand days, it just seems like it with the reporting from the Corpse-Media Media.
Oh good lord stop making it seem things are getting better.Our debt is nearing 17 trillion.The job reports are fixed top to bottom.It is horrible out there and getting no better.There is no recovery to speak of.And the banks are getting 85 blillion a month to stay afloat.Printed and borrowed.The deficit has dropped?Well yes on the one hand it has.If you ignore the other hand that is dumping money down a rat hole ten times ney a hundred times as fast.And the auto industry……..yes they are rebounding.With all the big SUVS the government so abhore’s.Dept upon debt upon dept.For every dime we make we spend an ocean of money.A whole society going part time or giving up looking for jobs.One thing I would hope for….To never see another Bush,Clinton,Reagan,Obama,Kennedy or any other ex big dog family names run for office.We have several hundred million people in this country.No need for political royalty.Tell jeb bush and Hilary to hit the bricks.Then I think we should agree to do debates with these scum hooked to a lie detector test -with shock capabilities.Taser their asses every time they lie.How about have them promise on the bible not to foster any untruths….with their soul as the bounty.Or the souls of their children.Sound like Im sick of the washington out house?
Policymakers have failed to seal a deal on the mix of politically difficult steps that a fix is likely to involve: … Page forgot to add: toss a couple trillion more at Wall Street.
What is most enraging about MSM political coverage is that the horse race stuff starts immediately after any given election. No sooner did the President win in 2012 than talk of who would be the 2016 nominees began gobbling up airtime and column inches. Of course, political handicapping is a lot easier than writing about substantive policy issues.
A factor that will continue to be ignored: Bill Clinton targeted the poor, giving us 8 years of Bush. The middle class voted for Bush, and the poor simply withheld their votes. That huge chunk of the population that is not as well off as middle class did overwhelmingly vote for Barack Obama on the chance that he could launch a legitimate discussion about poverty, in a country that shipped out a huge portion of our working class jobs, then then wiped out poverty relief. Well, he didn’t do that. Most recently, Democrats voted to cut food aid (again) to the elderly, disabled and working poor. I believe you will see the results of this in 2016.
DHfabian You are skimming by and talking a bit of sense there.But I have no faith in a huge segment to do anything but vote R or D with little to no thought given.Put it to you this way.I truly believe if Obama ran on the republican ticket he would win…the republican vote.And if Bush ran of the Dem ticket ,he would win there.People pull that lever as if their DNA is locked to it.