Barbara Walters Lets Obamas Advance Myth Presidents Always Lose Congress In Midterms
Barbara Walters on Friday allowed Barack and Michelle Obama advance the myth that presidents always lose Congress during midterm elections.
This not surprisingly happened during a special "20/20" interview with the first family at the White House (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BARBARA WALTERS, HOST: Your husband has said that you are his chief advisor. So what did you say to him the night of November 2nd when he was, as he put it, "shellacked?"
MICHELLE OBAMA: I said, "Let's -- let's get to work." There’s a lot to do. Yeah, I think for, for us, it's always the focus on what we need to get done. The work ahead.
BARACK OBAMA: Now keep in mind, that election night I think she went to sleep. So --
WALTERS: Did you really?
BARACK OBAMA: She -- she goes to sleep early.
MICHELLE OBAMA: I go to bed early. I can't stay awake for the returns. I gotta get up, work out.
WALTERS: So you didn't care whether the Democrats took over the House?
MICHELLE OBAMA: I absolutely care, but I figured --
WALTERS: And you did not -- you had to find about it the next day.
MICHELLE OBAMA: And it was going to be whatever it was going to be the next day. So I did, I did go to sleep.
[ Laughing]
WALTERS: This man who was considered such a great communicator, what did he do wrong?
MICHELLE OBAMA: It's a tough time. I mean, my understanding is that, number one, every president in history has lost Congress at the midterms. Maybe that's overstating it, but it's happened for every president in my lifetime.
BARACK OBAMA: It's the norm.
MICHELLE OBAMA: It's the norm. But unemployment is high. Folks are hurting. There is nothing that I would look at in this year -- I wouldn't look at not giving this country healthcare. I wouldn't -- I wouldn't want to take back any of the investments that we’ve made in education. So I think from a policy perspective, he has done an outstanding job.
BARACK OBAMA: She is a little biased.
MICHELLE OBAMA: You know, what --
BARACK OBAMA: That's okay.
WALTERS: You’re lucky.
MICHELLE OBAMA: I am here watching him.
WALTERS: Yeah. How do you feel when he is attacked?
I guess Walters felt it wouldn't be appropriate to contradict the President and his wife on Thanksgiving. After all, presidents losing Congress during the midterms has not been at all "the norm" since Mrs. Obama was born in 1964.
Lyndon Johnson although losing some seats in both chambers during his only midterm elections in 1966 still maintained a filibuster-proof 64 seat majority in the Senate and 247 seats in the House.
The Republicans never controlled either chamber of Congress during Richard Nixon's one-plus terms. As such, he never lost Congress. Same for Gerald Ford.
Although Jimmy Carter lost some seats in the 1978 midterms, he still maintained significant majorities of 58 seats in the Senate and 277 in the House.
Ronald Reagan's midterm record was actually one that has been widely misrepresented in recent weeks.
He came into office in 1981 with Republicans controlling the Senate for the first time in many years. Although he lost seats in the House during the 1982 midterms, he ended up gaining two seats in the Senate. He didn't lose the Senate back to the Democrats until the 1986 midterms.
With this in mind, as George H. W. Bush never had control of either chamber, he didn't lose Congress in his only midterm elections in 1990.
For his part, Bill Clinton fared very poorly in both of his midterms, while George W. Bush did well in 2002 only to get clobbered in 2006.
Add it all up, and of the seven presidents since Michelle Obama was born, not including her husband, only Reagan, Clinton, and Bush 43 lost Congress during midterm elections. Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter didn't.
But it's Thanksgiving, so who's counting, right?
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Comments
facts
Submitted by charlietexas on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 2:52pm.
"Just the facts, Ma'am" Joe Friday........"who cares about facts" Baba Wawa's
Who knew
Submitted by UpNorth on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 3:04pm.
that one could buy a burlap dress in this day and age? And, the camera didn't do Mooooochelle any favors with that angle. Along with her abysmal knowledge of history, she and her army of assistants have zero fashion sense, her trunk is still one fit for a doublewide.
No camera angle would help, UpNorth---
Submitted by matthewdean on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:55pm.
Mooooochelle can hide one big ass by sitting on it, but unless she covers them with blankets, she can't hide the one sitting next to her or the one sitting across from her.
MD
Investment in Education?
Submitted by exLib on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 3:12pm.
I think the best investment in education the Obama's made was putting their kids in Private School.
I could vomit watching that
Submitted by killa37 on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 3:18pm.
I could vomit watching that sick display of useless dreck!!!! I guess when Moooochelle says 'we have to get to work'..........she means getting up early to 'work out', and Boy Barry needs to go golfing. Of course, I can't tell if 'working out' is doing her any good, although she sure doesn't seem to mind telling US how to eat and take care of ourselves.........
'Unemployment is high.....and folks are hurting'...........but Barry's policies are great and he's done an 'outstanding job'................yep, sounds like she hit that one out of the park!!!
And these two posers are SUPPOSED to be 'smart'??? I swear, on my father's grave, that I have YET to notice it!!! But.........I know that the definition has been changed to be part of the 'new normal'.
Couple of ingrates, as far as I'm concerned..................and Barbara Walters outta go do some prunejuice advertisement with Bob Schieffer.............
Education investments
Submitted by Galvanic on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 3:31pm.
In constant dollars, the US now spends twice as much money per student as it did thirty years ago, according to data from the US Department of Education.
But test scores have not improved.
I'm not aware of anything this President has introduced that changes that.
Perhaps the First lady could explain why our "investments" yield no progress.
And it was in Carter's first term 30 years ago
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:54pm.
that the US Department of Education was formed. Think it is a coinkidink that Jimmah got a new Cabinet and that it has NOTHING to show for it? Same for DOE? Sounds like the DHS 30 years from now.
Get rid of these bloated, stupid, ineffective bureaucracies. Ought to be able to save another $100 billion easily.
Dennis Prager
I'm just very thankful that
Submitted by bkeyser on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 3:50pm.
I'm just very thankful that they "gave us health care." I noticed just the other day I was feeling a sort of stinging pain in my lower abdomen, but I called HHS (heretofore a non-existent government entity) and they sent someone right over. Not only was the pain gone in a matter of hours, I'm now free from future worries of gull bladder disease or any chance of a ruptured spleen as the agent dutifully removed those organs right here in my living room.
Thank you Barack!
What a dope.
Michelle meant to say..
Submitted by ThisnThat on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:01pm.
"it's happened for every president since I began to feel proud of my country".
Or, according to the msm, "since Lord obama blessed us".
If this is what's being served up for Thanksgiving, imagine what they're going to try to feed us at Christmas. er, I mean "the Holiday season". errr, I really meant "the 2010 post-Ramadan period".
__________
“Didn't win the Medal of Honor? Didn't even serve? Then lie about it. We'll support you." — 9th Circuit Court
Ever notice that ME-Chelle
Submitted by Van Halen on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:08pm.
Ever notice that ME-Chelle always looks severely pissed-off or really bored with whoever it is she's talking to, as if she has to deign to speak to such a specimen of the Great Unwashed?
VH
Submitted by Seashell on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:16pm.
Yes, much like Joan Walsh or that awful human being Sarah Bernhardt.
Check out Barack's dumbo
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:12pm.
Check out Barack's dumbo ears. Seems every time he lies they get bigger and bigger. At this rate soon they'll need their own zip code.
PS: The only consolation of these two losers stinking up the Holiday was the fact that they are even more miserable because of who and what they are than the American people are since the big Republican upset earlier this month.
I think they even hate one another as much as I hate the two of them. Maybe we'll be seeing them on an episode of " COPS " in the not to distant future. Only Michelle will be the one led away in cuffs while Barack cries like a little girl while hiding under the bed.
Bad Boy Bad Boy What Ya Gonna Do.....What Ya Gonna Do When Michelle Beats The Shit Out You?
Barack_Must_Go.....
I don't wanna get too wrapped
Submitted by killa37 on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:47pm.
I don't wanna get too wrapped up on Boy Blunder's ears.........he says he's self-conscious about them.........but I HAVE noticed that the damn guy seems to be getting more and more 'devilish' looking - especially in his eyes and facial expressions - lately, in public appearances and speeches and other venues where he's trying to be animated - because this guy is NOT one of the more animated guys I've ever seen.
I noticed the 'devilish' symptoms before, but they seem to be more and more apparant.
The real him
Submitted by jon_torlin on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 6:40pm.
Yeah, seen it a few times, it's the Angry Look because he's not trying to hide himself anymore as much as he used to.
But that's also when he's off script/prompter.
-Jon
They seem to grow like
Submitted by Dan Diego on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 7:53pm.
They seem to grow like another puppets nose did. There's a pic on Drudge showing his fat lip and one of his enormous ears.I can't stay awake for the
Submitted by Seashell on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:13pm.
I can't stay awake for the returns. I gotta get up, work out.To me that statement is very telling. She didn't say something like: "I've got to get up to get my kids off to school", or "to take care of commitments I have as First Lady', etc. No-she has to get up to work out on those gorgeous arms of hers. It's all about her and her vanity.
Is this the same interview?
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:19pm.
She said she would go along with a second term for him, because she'd feel guilty depriving the country of him??
MB
Submitted by Seashell on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:30pm.
I lol'ed at Mrs. P's comment: "OMG…..My Ovomit bag is full!!"
Hope she doesn't mind if I use that from time to time!
Don't know if it is the same interview
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:49pm.
but I beg of you, Moochelle, convince him not to run and thereby deprive me. It will just serve me right.
Dennis Prager
Geez
Submitted by Patriot II on Sun, 11/28/2010 - 9:16am.
What a nauseating thought and comment!!!
presidents always
Submitted by 10ksnooker on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:21pm.
find interviews outdome by reruns. Especially once the moo falls off, then they are done.
Halo effect
Submitted by Texndoc on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:30pm.
Was the light shining behind his head in that otherwise darkened room on purpose?
Oh yeah
Submitted by jon_torlin on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 7:10pm.
Given how they stage so many things like they have, oh yeah, that's easily a safe bet to make.
Not to mention all those previous photos of halo effects.....it's sickening.
-Jon
Oops, Noel
Submitted by Arminius on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 4:42pm.
"For his part, Bill Clinton fared very poorly in both of his midterms...."
That's not quite right. Clinton did better than expected in 1998. The GOP actually lost seats in the House, which led Newt Gingrich to resign. The GOP failed to pick up any seat in the Senate.
Arm
Submitted by Noel Sheppard on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 6:40pm.
Arm,
Yes, better than expected, but didn't win back either chamber. Would you call that successful or faring poorly? ns
I would mention to Michelle
Submitted by ant on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:00pm.
I would mention to Michelle and her wife what is really out of the norm is a group of citizens forming a Tea Party in protest of your policies and the awful mistake of the people to elect someone like Obama while the Dems led by fellow destroyer Nancy Pelosi held sway in Congress.
Here's a link that provides
Submitted by yutsnark on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:15pm.
Here's a link that provides data re midterm elections. It's true that the incumbent almost always loses seats in congress, but Michelle misspoke when she said that they all "lose congress." Obviously, you can't lose what you don't have.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/mid-term_elections.php
I'm surprised Ms Walters
Submitted by tampamom25 on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:25pm.
I'm surprised Ms Walters could fit in the room with both of those egos sitting there. They are so phony and so fake that it actually gives me physical pain to look at them.
Whatever Michelle. You iz not idiot.
Submitted by The Vet on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:31pm.
...every president in history has lost Congress at the midterms...Wednesday, November 06, 2002
In a stunning midterm victory for President Bush, the Republican Party won control of both houses of Congress early Wednesday morning.
~
"For the first time in the history of the country, the Republican Party appears to be on the verge of actually gaining seats in the House" in a midterm election, Fleischer said. And, he said, it is "increasingly clear the president played a role in breaking that historical trend."
This cannot be true
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:46pm.
After all, the First Lady said that President's normally lose Congress in the mid-terms, and we all know that she has this million dollar education where she learned EVERYTHING at all those prestigious schools she attended.
Dumb as a rock, that is what this woman is. And they take Sarah Palin to task for saying "North Korea" instead of "South Korea". ONCE.
Dennis Prager
Good evening Historian
Submitted by cocodrie on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:50pm.
True, but rocks aren't as hard, have better shapes and most are prettier.
Jesus Loves You so much He died for you
Sarah Palin is dumb as a box of rocks.
Submitted by The Vet on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 7:01pm.
But Michelle, oh smartiez Michelle, wowzee wowzers.
...every president in history has lost Congress at the midterms...IN HISTORY!
In the 19 mid-term elections held since 1934, only twice has the President's party gained seats in both the Senate and the House: FDR's first mid-term election and George W. Bush's first mid-term election.
The only person stupider than Barbara Walters
Submitted by TheHistorian on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:42pm.
is the President of ABC News, who lets this type of drivel be broadcast from his network. Barbara Walters wouldn't know a fact if she came upon it in gift-wrapped form. The other people who are dumber than rocks are the people who get their news from Barbara Walters.
Barbara, a point of education: to lose seats in the midterm is common. To lose the whole flipping House (which had a near-historic number of Democrat seats) is NOT common, and reflects that you and your ilk had better change saviors. I would suggest Jesus Christ would be a good candidate, as BHO is only a pretender.
Dennis Prager
Stick to the agenda,
Submitted by NDanielson on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:53pm.
and damn the facts. So much of what comes out of these two's mouths is outright lies, and they skate like nobody else I have seen in my entire lifetime.
Presidents don't lose
Submitted by Van Halen on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 5:54pm.
Presidents don't lose midterms the way THIS one did. The Left can play this game all they want but either they're going to ignore it at their peril or they're going to realize it and lie about it - also at their peril.
Democrats lost over 600 seats and I don't think it's done yet.
Their lips were moving?
Submitted by SATerp on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 6:47pm.
Then they were lying.
It's science.
I love the last question,
Submitted by Radical1979 on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 7:47pm.
I love the last question, "How do you feel when he's attacked?" Can Barbara please ask Laura Bush and Todd Palin the same question, as if she cares.
Clueless
Submitted by Cactus Kurt on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 8:38pm.
Now we know why they don't let Michelle Obama give interviews.
"I guess Walters felt it
Submitted by Chris Norman on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 11:11pm.
"I guess Walters felt it wouldn't be appropriate to contradict the President and his wife on Thanksgiving." ...Or the day before Thanksgiving. Or the day after Thanksgiving. Or fifty days before Thanksgiving. Or 134 days after Thanksgiving....delete
Submitted by GregE on Sat, 11/27/2010 - 11:49pm.
deleteBabs babs babs
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Sun, 11/28/2010 - 12:13am.
But the democrats haven't gotten beaten like the rented mules they are since 38, so keep the delusion alive!
The norm would be we take up
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sun, 11/28/2010 - 12:17am.
The norm would be we take up like the peasants storming Dracula's castle to put the stake in the beast.
Yep...............
Submitted by Patriot II on Sun, 11/28/2010 - 9:14am.
And commies lose their second term!!!!
The norm
Submitted by nkviking75 on Sun, 11/28/2010 - 9:22am.
They're trying to pass off the biggest "shellacking" since the 30's as "the norm". A real reporter would have pointed this out. Unfortunately, no real reporters were invited.
It's sad to think that these two bozos will most likely be around for another 3 to 4 decades and probably sticking their noses into presidential business a la Jimmy Carter.
“Always love your country — but never trust your government!" -- Bob Novak (1931-2009)
When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.