More and more I’m starting to think that all this hubbub over the “experience” of Hilary or the “spirit” of Obama is pointless. For the most part they are not that different. At least from the liberal perspective. Realistically when faced with getting things past Congress or the Senate they will face the same challenges. Aside from certain specifics like healthcare, (and I’m sorry Obama but yes everyone needs mandatory healthcare; when you’re 22 years old you may think you don’t need it but then you get hit by a bus and surprise, surprise you have no health coverage to get you through) their platforms are nearly identical.

Therein lies the problem or more correctly the lack of one.

We’re spending far too much money, time and sleepless nights trying to figure out who is best suited to beating the Republican candidate. While it is important, it’s not as important as we seem to think. Why? Simply put, the chances of our next president actually sitting for two terms is next to nil. It seems to me the bigger the mess left behind by the previous president, the harder it is to get it fixed in 4 years. Being the impatient crowd that we are we’ll probably kick the person out at the end of their first term anyway.

This happened here in NYC. After years of Ed Koch, we were in quite a bad state. In came Dinkins. He actually started a lot of the programs that helped put the city back on it’s feet but since they didn’t bear fruit immediately we got rid of him right away. In came Guiliani who expanded on many of those programs (such as putting cops back on the beat in crime ridden neighborhoods) and reaped all the rewards.

At the end of Nixon/Ford, Jimmy Carter didn’t have a chance. It took four years just to start climbing back out of the hole we were in so by the time Reagan was sworn in he was able to ride the wave to a seemingly robust 8 years. Bush Sr. of course had to suffer when the Reagan facade crumbled and we plunged back into a recession. Along came Clinton and we know how that was. Bush Jr. breaks it a bit but I attribute that to the whole 9/11 thing and the election weirdness. Nothing about his presidency has been predicatable.

What does this mean for you and me? Take it as a sign to not stress so much over this election. You’ll have another shot at it in 4 years anyway.

Posted by Nancy