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Time is running out for the White House. A lesson from the failed reelection bid of George H.W. Bush
Andrew Leonard
June 2, 2011
http://www.salon.com/news/2012_elections/index.html?story=/tech/htww/2011/06/02/obama_economic_nightmare
On Oct. 27, 1992, less than a week before Election Day, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy had grown by a surprising 2.7 percent in the third quarter. Seizing his last chance to refute Bill Clinton's "it's the economy stupid" campaign strategy, President George H.W. Bush jumped all over the new numbers.
From The New York Times:
"We have now had six straight quarters of growth in the United States," Mr. Bush said as he campaigned through Iowa, Kentucky and Ohio. "And yet the Democrats keep telling us that everything is going to hell. And they're wrong."
The Clinton camp scoffed.
Ronald H. Brown, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Mr. Bush's reaction was "another example of a failed President grasping at straws."
And specialists working in the campaign of Gov. Bill Clinton, the Democratic nominee, noted that growth in the last six quarters had averaged 1.8 percent -- less than one-third the rate for comparable periods in the other eight postwar recoveries. They said the third-quarter advance could not be sustained.
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