Voter's Short Memory (e.g., John McCain 2008 "Eastwooding")

Black Swan

The voter's memory is short. They remember only today, not yesterday. Examples:

They forgot that the Great Recession, doubling of Federal deficit, two of the longest wars in US history (costing billions per month), and the biggest American financial institution failure (resulting largely from a 2004 SEC deregulated environment under Bush appointed Chairman Cox) all started and occurred during the Republican Bush-Cheney Administration. Now, only 4 years later, they want to vote another Republican administration back into office, and fill the halls of Congress with Republicans, most of whom held office and supported that Bush-Cheney Republican administration.

They forgot the international sex scandal and national embarrassment associated with the Bill Clinton Administration, and how there were attempts to remove him from office as President. He will soon speak on behalf of Obama at the forthcoming DNC as if it had never occurred.

Less serious, yet a craic nonetheless, they forgot the 2008 "empty chair." John McCain proposed 10 Town Hall debates which Obama refused, and during those 2008 Town Hall meetings McCain spoke to an empty chair representing an absent Obama. Did Clint Eastwood give credit to McCain? No. Yet the voter acts as if such a routine was original to Eastwood in the political venue, and is now called "Eastwooding" as if he coined this polemic device. It should be renamed to give John McCain credit, but for the voter's short memory.

karma_

I think we have a certain tolerance to politicians doing idiotic things, when an actor does it, and does it as badly as Eastwood then that is going to stick big time.

Permabear

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Black Swan

The "empty chair" is not for Obama, rather it's for the US voter, who always forgets.

Permabear wrote: »

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It's not "factually true," so we are both wrong in our historical revisionism. The longest declared war in US history began 25 June 1950, and although there was a temporary armistice, no peace treaty has been signed between warring powers, who continue to face each other today with the tools of war along a DMZ for the past 62 years, occasionally killing one another, and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars.

All administrations have been failures, Democrats and Republicans, including the US Congresses, to the extent that they have failed to end a war extending over 6 decades, and keeping that region and the world at risk.

Someone please attempt to historically revise and spin it for either Republicans or Democrats in time for the November 2012 election. Please, no political campaign promises by Romney or Obama that will be forgotten after the election, just things "factually true."

But the voter forgets, and votes for their godlike champion, who will slay Evil and bring about a Brave New World for the Good, exhibiting such “Civil Religious” zeal in attacking the opposing party that would serve to embarrass Robert Bellah.

Permabear

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Overheal

And I'll be wearing perfume in a library. Just to protect my right to do so!

Overheal

speaking of short memory - its been years now since I heard someone discuss the odds of an assassination. With Bush, there was someone every 20 minutes saying something like "I can't understand how someone hasn't taken him out yet". Similarly when we discussed just for the sake of probability how at-risk incumbent Obama was for a potential assassination, and I had people try to physically threaten me just for bringing the subject (to them, the mere act of bringing it up in conversation increased the likelihood...ok then).

I think the last time I ever heard a thing about it was during the peak of the Tea Party vitriol. But in all honesty while the political discourse is still ugly and dishonest and annoying as hell, it's nowhere near the old standard of people wondering if our elected officials are going to be snuffed out, or elections are going to be rigged, etc.