Salon columnist Walter Shapiro calls it the “sixth-year swoon.” Both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton experienced it — a downward spiral in the middle of their second term. But the timing, Shapiro argues, is all that the two swoons have in common. Clinton’s troubles caused Americans to dislike him personally, but they continued to approve of his job performance. Bush’s struggles have elicited just the opposite reaction. So Shapiro asks the obvious question:
“So which is a better situation for a beleaguered second-term president: Is it the Clinton-esque ‘I love your work, but your personal life gives me the creeps’ or the Bushian ‘You’re a great guy, but maybe you should think about another career’?”
What do you think?
Posted by Melissa Cooley
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