[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

I disagree about the first part. Different segments have always been "scared and angry" about certain politicians or parties, just different degrees. You should have been around in 1968. Talk about scared and angry - makes today looks like a sunday school potluck.

Fair enough. But I think you'll agree that this is perhaps the most unsettled electorate since 1968. Maybe 1980 gets close.

Since you were there, do you see parallels between RFK (hope, change) and Nixon (experienced, safe)?

I was going to mention the generation aspect but only in specifics. You can't say that it was simply boomers vs the oldies.

I'm not, and it never is. But as you note, the Boomer cohort helped move Clinton to victory in, I think, a large part because he was a Boomer and someone with whom they could identify.

This perhaps played a part in the fatigue, weariness or whatever voters felt just after 22 months when the 1994 election came around.

1992 and 1994 strike me as two elections where modern-day partisanship really came of age. The Senate in which I served an internship in 1992 seems very different from the Senate as it is described today. Heck, I even remember having a very cordial conversation with Orrin Hatch & Kay Bailey Hutchinson, both of whom praised my boss at the time, George Mitchell.

But in the end, it is not going to come down to issues or age, just likeability and/or charisma.

Yep. Isn't this pretty much always the way, though?

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

If I got a phone survey today, I'd answer/agree that we're heading in the wrong direction. But that's not indicative of what direction I think we should be heading.

Oh, I agree absolutely. I didn't mean to suggest that this 80% agrees on a particular direction. But if such a large part of the electorate feels we're going in the wrong direction, that has to be a big factor in how the campaigns proceed.