Dynasty

Michael Barone has an interesting theory about the Iowa results over at The Wall Stree Journal.

I so do not agree. What we have here is an electorate disgusted, at least in Iowa, with dynasties :

Ronald Wilson Reagan 1981–89
(George H. W. Bush)

George Herbert Walker Bush 1989–93
(J. Danforth Quayle)

Bill Clinton 1993–2001
(Albert Gore, Jr.)

George Walker Bush 2001–2008
(Dick Cheney)

That's in a nutshell Hillary Clinton's problem.

In a move that left political Washington reeling, George Bush and Hillary Clinton held a joint press conference on the steps of the United States Capitol this morning to announce their respective retirements from Presidential politics.

In a joint statement read by an aide to the assembled national news media, the two premier exponents of dynastic politics announced:

OK, we get it. You're sick of us. And guess what? We're sick of us, too. Twenty years of doing this job between the Bushes and the Clintons, and you wouldn't be sick of it? And now, look where we are: we don't have a manufcaturing base left - no, thank you, NAFTA. We're stuck in a war we're losing, the budget's going belly-up, the rest of the world hates us, yadda yadda yadda. Bad news, people. Time for a fresh start. And yes, we do get that you're barely holding back the vomit considering another four years of business as usual, Washington insider consultants, canned sound bites and focus groups. Hey, we don't like that, and it's what we do. Do you really think we enjoy coming up with these goddamned soundbites all day every day? You ever done a focus group? It ain't as much fun as smoking pot on the beach, people.

The now-former President added extemporaneously:

Look, y'all's don't realize what a complete pain it is for our families that we have this so-called monopoly on the Presidency. No member of my family can even walk down the street to grab a frigging bagel without having some random psycho run up and and breathlessly tell them they've formed an exploratory committee for them. You tell me if that's how you'd want to live your life.