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Introduction: The '92 Elections: An Autumn of Discontent?
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19543 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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11 / 1991 |
697 Words |
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Despite the seemingly inevitable march of President George
Bush toward reelection in November 1992, there are disquieting signs for the White House.
More than half the Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction. Economists continue to argue whether the recession is over and how vigorous the economic upturn will be. Unemployment is stuck at around 7 percent and next year's federal deficit is expected to set a new record at nearly $350 billion. Some observers are wondering: Will Democrats turn the tables on Republicans and begin talking about a "misery index"?
The United States is confronted with a series of paradoxes: It is the number one superpower and debtor nation in the world. It wins military wars with astonishing ease but is still losing the war against drugs, crime, and poverty. It confidently promotes democracy around the world but is saddled with divided and divisive government at home. More and more Americans seem to be telling President Bush to put his passport away and spend more time in Washington solving the serious problems afflicting the country.
Democrats insist that the Bush record, if not the president himself, it vulnerable. They vow to take advantage of what they call Republican inability to handle pocketbook issues like jobs, health care, education, and the homeless. But do they have a candidate who can take on and defeat a world leader like George Bush? Are Americans so dissatisfied they will vote into the White House someone named Harkin, Kerry, or Clinton?
To get the answers to these and other questions about the '92 elections, THE WORLD & I went to leading political experts.
The first question most pundits are concerned with is if there really is any contest? With George Bush so high in the polls can anyone effectively challenge him?
As Thomas Dewey discovered in 1948, an American presidential election is never a sure thing, writes A. James Reichley, a retired senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. American voters have shown they can change their minds even a few weeks before election day. And with 57 percent of polled Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track or others who are "downright angry and frustrated about the state of the current political system," the national soil is fertile for nothing less than a major political
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