Blowing Out the Election Candles

Remarkably few recent presidential campaigns forecast the course of the following four years. Kennedy ran on the “missile gap” and generational vigor, not civil rights or the nuclear test ban. Johnson ran seeking “no wider war,” not seeking to send half a million troops into Vietnam. Nixon ran on law-and-order and vague pacific noises, not the aerial bombardment of Vietnam or environmental reform, affirmative action, wage-and-price controls, or burglary. Jimmy Carter ran on honesty, not deregulation, stagflation, or arousing the wrath of the Ayatollah Khomeini. George Bush ran on the flag and “no new taxes,” not Persian Gulf policy or recession. And in 1992, Bill Clinton split the difference between “putting people first”...