The second terms of the latest three presidents have not been successful. Bill Clinton was impeached after his infamous lie to Americans, \u201cI did not have sexual relations with that woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/3079347436_d658ac32d0.jpg?resize=300%2C214&ssl=1\" "\\"Photo")
George W. Bush was blamed for the postwar violence in Iraq.<\/p>\n
Barack Obama\u2019s scandals \u2014 with his accompanying \u201climited hangout\u201d denials \u2014 are ruining his second term: the growing IRS messes, the Associated Press monitoring, the NSA embarrassments, the Benghazi killings, the Syria bluster and backdown, and, of course, the Obamacare fiasco and the misleading statements about it.<\/p>\n
What are other common denominators of this collective tenure of our recent presidents?<\/p>\n
After popular first terms and reelection, they seemed to have lost public confidence and the ability to continue an agenda.<\/p>\n
Do two terms wear out a president?<\/p>\n
Maybe the hubris of getting reelected convinces our commanders-in-chief that they are mostly beyond reproach. Overreach ensues. Then the goddess Nemesis descends in destructive fashion to remind them that they are mere mortals.<\/p>\n
In addition, the more talented cabinet and staff appointees often bail out near the end of the first term. At best, they burn out from continuous 16-hour work days. At worst, they flee to leverage their former high-profile jobs through revolving-door influence-peddling, finding new work in media, lobbying, consulting, and on Wall Street.<\/p>\n
Boredom, on the part of both\u00a0the president and the public, takes its toll. Clinton was an effective speaker \u2014 at first. Near the end of his eight years, the public\u2019s eyes rolled when he predictably misled, exaggerated, or became petulant.<\/p>\n
Bush was witty and sincere in repartee and impromptu speaking but often stumbled over the teleprompter. By the end of his eight years, his critics were publishing books of Bush malapropisms.<\/p>\n
It is hard now to believe that Obama\u2019s banal \u201chope and change\u201d ever set a nation on fire. Certainly by 2013, we have come to snore when Obama for the nth time laces his teleprompted rhetoric with \u201cmake no mistake about it\u201d or \u201clet me be perfectly clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
One-term presidencies \u2014 or a constitutional change to a single six-year presidential term \u2014 make better sense. A single presidential tenure might curtail an incumbent\u2019s customary exaggerations about supposed past achievements and the phony promises about great things to come that are apparently necessary for reelection. Much of wasteful federal spending and general bad policy derives from the reelection efforts of an incumbent desperate to appease or buy off the electorate.<\/p>\n
In contrast, our culture\u2019s heroes \u2014 in literature, film, and the military \u2014 get things done precisely because they do not care all that much what happens to them as a result of their courageous decisions. In that regard, Calvin Coolidge\u2019s decision to seek just one elected term is a far better model than Richard Nixon\u2019s two.<\/p>\n
Age may also be a factor. We are a youth-obsessed Camelot culture that puts far too much stock in good-looking candidates who act hip, jog, or seem robust. Clinton was only 46 when he entered office, Obama just 47, and Jimmy Carter 52.<\/p>\n
In a time of increased longevity, perhaps we should reconsider the advantages that six decades of experience might offer. Harry Truman (60), Dwight Eisenhower (62), and Ronald Reagan (69)\u00a0seemed far steadier presidents. Their skepticism and perspective may have resulted from long careers of seeing almost everything \u2014 in addition to regular afternoon naps.<\/p>\n
The youthful 40-something John F. Kennedy was impulsive in the same fashion as the reckless and similarly inexperienced Carter, Clinton, and Obama. The second time around, presidents in their mid-60s probably would not be so eager to paw comely interns or in na\u00efve fashion boast that they could \u201cfundamentally transform America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can we also take a breather from the Ivy League?<\/p>\n
When Obama finishes his term, we will have had 28 consecutive years of presidents with either an undergraduate or graduate degree from Harvard or Yale. We should have learned from chronic deficits, massive debt, and Obamacare that the Ivy League\u2019s best and brightest are not always either. Truman\u2019s higher education came from the school of hard knocks. Ike graduated from West Point and helped win World War II.<\/p>\n
Reagan slogged it out for years in the cutthroat worlds of Hollywood and television \u2014 after graduating from tiny Eureka College.<\/p>\n
Finally, can our next president have done something for a while other than nonstop politicking? The press caricatured Ike\u2019s garbled speeches and Reagan\u2019s B-movie reruns. But at least they did not go uninterruptedly from one political office to the next until being elected president.<\/p>\n
Youthful charisma, the Ivy League, career politicians, and two presidential terms\u00a0may be fine in theory, but next time around can we take a needed break from what have become our presidents-as-usual?<\/p>\n
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.<\/em>\u00a0His latest book is<\/em>\u00a0The Savior Generals<\/a><\/span><\/em>,\u00a0published this spring by<\/em>\u00a0Bloomsbury Books.<\/em>\u00a0You can reach him by e-mailing\u00a0<\/em>author@victorhanson.com<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n \u00a9 2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Charismatic career politicians don’t make the best commanders-in-chief. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 The second terms of the latest three presidents have not been successful. Bill Clinton was impeached after his infamous lie to Americans, \u201cI did not have sexual relations with that woman.\u201d George W. Bush was blamed for the postwar violence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[117,99],"tags":[12,57,74,890,901],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Km","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6697,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-credibility-gap\/","url_meta":{"origin":6718,"position":0},"title":"Obama’s Credibility Gap","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The former hope-and-change president no longer gets a pass. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 By 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson was finally done in by his \u201ccredibility gap\u201d \u2014 the growing abyss between what he said about, and what was actually happening inside, Vietnam. \u201cModified limited hangout\u201d and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Punditry"","block_context":{"text":"Punditry","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/punditry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10227,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-obamas-and-the-clinton-road-to-perdition\/","url_meta":{"origin":6718,"position":1},"title":"The Obamas and the Clinton Road to Perdition","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson American Greatness Hillary and Bill Clinton were a proud, progressive power couple who came into big-time state politics on promises of promoting \u201cfairness\u201d and \u201cequality.\u201d It did not matter much that very little in their previous personal lives had matched such elevated rhetoric with concrete action.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bill Clinton"","block_context":{"text":"Bill Clinton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/bill-clinton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10602,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/allegations-of-foreign-election-tampering-have-always-rung-hollow\/","url_meta":{"origin":6718,"position":2},"title":"Allegations of Foreign Election Tampering Have Always Rung Hollow","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Blaming foreign influence on an election loss has become a habitual practice for unsuccessful presidential candidates, but such allegations have never rung true. On her current book tour, Hillary Clinton is still blaming the Russians (among others) for her unexpected defeat in last year\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "George W. Bush"","block_context":{"text":"George W. Bush","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/george-w-bush\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":777,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/presidential-narcissism\/","url_meta":{"origin":6718,"position":3},"title":"Presidential Narcissism","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Former president Bill Clinton just appeared in a reelection television commercial for President Barack Obama. At one point, Clinton weighs in on the potential consequences of Obama\u2019s decision to go ahead with the planned assassination of Osama bin Laden. He smiles and then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Retrospective"","block_context":{"text":"Retrospective","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/retrospective\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6766,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-tenth-life-of-and-obamacat\/","url_meta":{"origin":6718,"position":4},"title":"The Tenth Life of an Obamacat","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner\u00a0 An Obamcat administration is given nine, but not ten, lives: 1) The dismal economy 2) Guantanamo, renditions, and tribunals that were to be relegated to the Bush-Cheney ash heap 3) Fast and\u00a0Furious 4) The \u201clead from behind\u201d fiasco in Libya 5) Benghazi 6)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/obama-administration\/commentary-obama-administration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6824,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-presidents-lie\/","url_meta":{"origin":6718,"position":5},"title":"How Presidents Lie","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's nothing new for a president to lie to us, but Obama's style is unique. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online\u00a0 In the past there have been all sorts of presidential fibbing. Some chief executives make promises that they know they probably cannot or will not keep. Before his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/450px-Revolving_Door-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6720,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6718\/revisions\/6720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}