Not receiving much help are the 47 million Americans who don’t have medical insurance, mostly because they can’t afford the premiums, and the 3.5 million homeless, most of whom once had homes and jobs but are now living in their cars or makeshift shelters. About one-fourth of the homeless are veterans; slightly more than one-third of the homeless are children.
In 1992, Bill Clinton and Al Gore campaigned against President George H.W. Bush on the slogan, “It’s the economy, Stupid.” The politics of that election came down to asking Americans if they were better off under that President Bush after four years than they were when his presidency began. Four presidential terms later, after eight years of a rising economy under President Clinton, it’s the economy—not the war, the attack upon civil liberties, the destruction of the environment, or any of a few dozen other destructive policies—that may be what finally scuttles this Bush’s legacy.
[Dr. Brasch, an award-winning syndicated columnist, is professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University and president of the Pennsylvania Press Club. His latest book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush (November 2007), available through amazon.com and other bookstores. You may contact Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu or through his website at: www.walterbrasch.com.]
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