Obama’s election, like Harding’s, is one where we remember the voters as much as we remember the one for whom they voted
In 1920, for the first time, American women had the right to vote in a federal election. Warren G. Harding won that election by a landslide and, rightly or wrongly, he went down as the president whose dashing good looks and insouciance so charmed American women that they put him in the White House. Here is the dashing, insouciant Harding:
Harding’s good looks and charm have not worn well. Neither has his reputation. His administration is remembered as one of the most corrupt in history — and, sadly, that first batch of women voters is remembered for having put him in the White House.
Almost one hundred years later, Tina Korbe has identified a new group of voters who may well be remembered for their role in placing one of the most corrupt presidents ever into the White House. It seems that the millennials (those young ‘uns who come of age politically in the new millennium) are no more. Our President has given them a new name, one that, unsurprisingly, is tied closely to his own presidency:
President Barack Obama has rebranded us. To him, we’re “Gen44.” Expanded, that means we’re the generation that elected him as the nation’s 44th president. Can you say, “hubris,” anyone? It’s almost like pleading to restart the calendar with 2008 as 1 Anno Obama.
In addition to the overwhelming narcissism this re-branding displays, Korbe points out that there is a certain truth to this horrible appellation:
What’s particularly galling about this is that he’s right. To date, our record participation in his election is our defining achievement.
What women were to Warren G. Harding, Gen44 will be to Barack Obama. Let us just hope that Obama’s administration will be almost as short-lived as Harding’s (only Obama, God willing, will be booted out via the ballot box, rather than congestive heart failure).