We need to understand that in the end, if we're going to make a positive difference in the future, we can't have election cycles where one side, the middle and the right side, they talk trash.
In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents.
The presidency of the United States is a very unique elected position. So if anything merits a longer vetting process, the presidency does to some extent. In general our election cycles are too long, but this job is so consequential that I don't think it's a bad thing to give people more time to get to know you.
Maybe you want to look at the most recent polling or you want to pull up a data set on early voting in Ohio, but when you cover politics day-to-day and you've been doing it for many election cycles, you're prepared. You either know this stuff because you've been doing it so long or you don't and that shows real quick.
The faces and the tactics of the leaders may change every four years, or two, or one, but the people go on forever.
The Republicans have a habit of having three bad years and one good one, and the good one always happens to be election years.
I represented the 4th District of South Carolina... from the election '92 until election '98. And then I was out six years and then came back for another six years between the election 2004 and the election 2010.
Politicians are elected for two years or four years at a time, and prevention programs of all kinds are simply not a priority for people whose careers are so short-lived.
Florida wants to get married. We want to stop this every-two-year or every-four-year dating process where, in between those election cycles, investments in our state diminish.
Once every 12 years there is a unique opportunity to reinforce the bonds between Mexico and the United States, when our presidential election cycles coincide.
There are cycles in American politics. US cycles are even more pronounced because we Americans have a totally entrepreneurial presidential system. We don't have parliamentary opposition parties with a shadow prime minister and shadow cabinets. Every four years, the opposition reinvents itself.
Some journalists just get too wrapped up in daily news cycles and tempests in a teapot that are not going to make any difference. As someone who is older and has been through a few election cycles, maybe this is just being an old fogey, but I think I know what's going to really matter and what's not.
