greenfield. and from washington and msnbc political analyst, eugene robinson. i m reading the jeff greenfield column. isn t it fantastic? it s always fantastic. he posted at 4:00 a.m. this morning. i was weeping by 4:15. it was unbelievable. it really was. except i disagree with it. everything about it. the misleading second term curse. poor barack obama, after fighting and spending his way to a close but clear re-election, he s doomed to four years of agony, thanks to that second term curse that affects just about every president who s had the misfortune to win a second term. the litmyany appears compelling from lincoln to fdr setback to nixon s disgrace to reagan s iran contra scandal to clinton s impeachment, to george w. bush s
graveyard they should go to. you look at the overreach in iran. you can say the same thing with bill clinton. yes, it occurred in 95, but a lot of arrogance made a bad situation much worse in the second term. here s my other question. how come we don t talk about a first term curse. clinton lost both houses of congress in 94. reagan got clobbered and republicans lost 62% in 1982. if it s bad enough you don t get to a second term. there s a certain laziness. that said, if you look where obama is now and look at what could afflict him in the second term. you already see things down the road. if iraq and afghanistan go south, his decision to end american participation in those countries is going to be seen as a great mistake. if the arab spring turns into a nuclear winter, those decisions
collapsing popularity a second term sounds so unappealing it s almost surprising obama didn t ask for a recount. it doesn t afflict every president. second, for many president, the woes of the second term are rooted in action and decisions taken in the first term which raises the dicey question about what might come to afflict this president. jeff, you did the laundry list. you look at nixon, wins 49 states, two years later, he s out of office. you look at reagan, who wins 49 states, the night of the midterm, iran contra is launched. bill clinton impeached, on and on. yes. except that, of course, almost everything you list is a consequence of what these presidents did in their first terms. water gait happen watergate happened in nixon s first term. iran contra is one exception. the seeds of that are in the attempt to aid the contras in nicaragua first term.
monica lewinsky showed up at the white house in 1995, first term. george bush s iraq agony was because of decisions he made in his first term. there s a certain myth about this. people say you get re-elected and get arrogant and cocky. you look a lot of this is what s happened to presidents before they get re-elected. a way of me say, even if you do disagree. i saw bartlett nodding his head so i think i m going with him. you have to think before you casually say there s a second curse. after impeachment, clinton 11th the white house with 66% approval rating and after iran contra, reagan left with a 63% approval rating. it s not that cut and dried presidents have to go through this. you do agree, let s take reagan, the most famous case. you had complacency, you had mistake at vickburg, reagan people bored going around germany looking for mercedes instead of figuring out what