When was the last time you have been wrong about a political candidate?

[Darrell KSR]

I thought Barack Obama would be better than he has been. I never expected good. I just didn't expect bad. I think we got bad.

On the flip side, Bill Clinton exceeded my expectations. By a significant margin. I set the bar very low for him, but I think he did a good job, morality notwithstanding.

[Doc]

I think most folks really reset their thinking on Clinton. When he left office he wasn't anywhere near as popular as he is now, thats for sure. His greatest attribute was he was willing to work with the opposition. As for Obama, he pretty much took us exactly where I figured he would. I liked the look initially. Young, hip, charismatic...felt it was what the country need until I actually looked at his politics. Then I was hoping Hillary would beat him out because I knew McCain wasn't winning 6 years ago. Especially after picking that ditz for a running mate.
I don't think I was "wrong" about Bush. Didn't think he would be great but didn't have a better choice.

[bigsky]

George Bush

[CitizenBBN]

I pegged Obama. Like Doc when I looked into his politics I was appalled and frightened. He's a true leftist/socialist. Not a "liberal" or "Big government Democrat", but a true socialist. He wasn't exaggerating about a vision of "transforming" America, he really has no respect for or belief in our founding principles. Social Justice Uber Alles.

In Presidents I thought George Bush would stand up on taxes, though I knew he was always a good bit more Rockefeller Republican than Reagan. Not a complete miss, but maybe wrongly optimistic. I hoped he'd do the right thing, esp. on the heels of Reagan establishing such a clear direction.

I'd have to go down to Senators to pick full blown misses. McCain is probably on my list. I really thought as a Reagan camp guy with close ties to them he'd be a square person. The Keating Five was the first sign I chose to ignore too much, but he's proven to be far more unstable and inconsistent on things than I expected.

There have been other senators. I will say I was pleased Clinton was as blue-dog as he seemed to be, not sure that's a miss but it was relief.

IMO the way to peg politicians is simple: be as cynical as possible. Very few truly put their agenda ahead of themselves in the end, even true believers like Obama. Reagan did, he was older and wasn't angling for big post-Presidency paydays or establishing a political family. He was the Rich Brooks of the country, there to solve some problems, retire to his ranch and enjoy the outdoors.

But most are only out for their power and prestige when push comes to shove, it's not hard to get in their heads b/c they aren't real complex thinkers. Most aren't even smart enough to be complex.

[bigsky]

in the 180 degree discussion, I still mourn Jack Kemp. also HW Bush was far better than I expected.

but his kid was a big spender and asleep at the defense of our country switch

[suncat05]

While it may be true that GW Bush was not as alert as he could have been at the time of the attacks of 9-11, it's not really fair to lay the entire blame at his feet. Yes, he was asleep at the wheel when it happened, but it was not just his failure totally. William Jefferson Clinton has just as much culpability, if not more, for not killing/capturing Bin Laden during several opportunities that had become available to him. Bin Laden was basically handed to him on a silver platter and then Clinton REFUSED to protect America from a clear & present danger. Clinton did everything he could do to erode the military, and the intelligence community's abilities to accurately track these guys as they were planning and carried out the attacks on the two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole. And let's also not forget that even though multiple intelligence & law enforcement agencies all had the same information about Bin Laden and other terrorists, they didn't share that info with each other, which helped to ultimately make 9-11 possible.
When first elected, I felt like WJC might actually make a pretty good President, but as time went on I saw that electing him as POTUS was clearly a mistake. It wasn't just one thing, but a lot of little things that are not really so little, like his stance on the 2nd Amendment, Hillary's attempt at national healthcare, the scandal with her law firm, the subsequent death of Vince Foster under the most extremely suspicious circumstances, the whole Monica circus.........WJC is just like Obama, he's a good talker, but where WJC is way better than Obama is that WJC is actually a fairly smart guy and listens to his advisors, whereas Obama just doesn't.
I am really hoping that Hillary doesn't become the next POTUS. She'll be just as bad, if not worse than Obama. There's too many dead bodies from over the years that are following her around, way too much socialist/Marxist ideology in her purse.

[jazyd]

The only good thing about Clinton was he is a good politician and worked with the other side and then took credit for all of it, but at least things got done. And suncat nailed him on the 9/11, it was his fault and not Bush. At least Bush did something afterward, something democrats won't or can't do.
I had Obama figured out, like doc and citizen started looking at his politics, his speeches, his days in Ill senate, how he voted..when he actually did vote...and knew we would be getting screwed, just didn't realize it would be this painful. And listening to his speeches pre telepromter let anyone that paid attention know he isn't nearly as smart as the liberal media wanted us to believe.
I did miss on Carter, didn't vote for him, but never felt anyone could be that dumb and get elected to that office.

[KeithKSR]

Haven't really missed on many of the Presidential electees. Obama has sucked really bad, as expected. His record made him easy to peg.

Voted for Clinton once, and his first term sucked. His major coup was being fortunate enough to be in office when Newt held the purse strings.

GHWB and GWB were both more centrist than credited and may have been overly willing to compromise with the liberals.

[MickintheHam]

The last one I was wrong about was Jimmy Carter. In 76 I thought he would be a better President than Gerald Ford. I didn't make that mistake twice. It did allow me to see through Obama from the very beginning. It was easy to see he was the most unprepared candidate ever. If someone doesn't demonstrate leadership characteristics and/or have some executive type experience I'm not voting for them. Guys selling a philosophy without one of the first two characteristics, isn't getting my vote.