{"id":460856,"date":"2011-07-14T11:26:54","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T11:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/14\/would-it-be-double-double-or-double-trouble\/"},"modified":"2011-07-14T11:26:54","modified_gmt":"2011-07-14T11:26:54","slug":"would-it-be-double-double-or-double-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/14\/would-it-be-double-double-or-double-trouble\/","title":{"rendered":"Would It Be Double Double Or Double Trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no exaggeration to say the undecided could go one way or another,\u201d was arguably one of the most profound statements made by George Bush Snr., in 1988, when the vice president to Ronald Reagan was trying to be his own man by standing for the highest office of the land.<\/p>\n

Four years later, during the 1992 New Hampshire presidential primary, the under-siege President Bush topped it by saying to employees of an insurance company, \u201cYou cannot be president of the United States if you don\u2019t have faith. Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial and the Civil War and all that stuff. You can\u2019t be. And we are blessed. So don\u2019t feel sorry for \u2014 don\u2019t cry for me, Argentina. Message: I care.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the issue, Bush Snr was under a lot of pressure from both his party and America. His first term as president was seen as uninspiring; his domestic policies had made Americans poorer; it was all about the economy, stupid!<\/p>\n

He told Americans he cared for them but ended up introducing policies that hurt their pockets. At the 1988 Republican National Convention, as he accepted the nomination on August 18, he made a promise that became his biggest self-inflicted undoing. He said, \u201cAnd I\u2019m the one who will not raise taxes. My opponent now says he\u2019ll raise them as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that\u2019s one resort he\u2019ll be checking into. My opponent, my opponent won\u2019t rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes and I\u2019ll say no. And they\u2019ll push, and I\u2019ll say no, and they\u2019ll push again, and I\u2019ll say to them,\u00a0\u2018Read my lips: no new taxes\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The promise not to raise taxes was broken quickly once he won power. Bush raised taxes to reduce the fiscal deficit. Indeed, so damaging was the impact of this broken promise that for the third time in the 20th<\/sup> century history of America (after the elections of 1912 and 1976), a sitting Republican president had to face a serious challenge from his own party.<\/p>\n

In fact, the conservative commentator and evangelist, Pat Buchanan, cited the broken promise not to raise taxes as what got him to challenge Bush. Buchanan\u2019s campaign was instructive. He said the ruling party could no longer blame the opposition for their mistakes. He said, \u201cWe Republicans can no longer say it is all the liberals\u2019 fault. It was not some liberal Democrat who said \u2018Read my lips: no new taxes,\u2019 then broke his word to cut a seedy backroom budget deal with the big spenders on Capitol Hill\u201d, the legislature.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday, President Mills won a decisive victory against his only challenger, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings. Out of 2,861 delegates, Mills got 2,771, with Mrs Rawlings receiving 90 votes. In percentage terms, 96.9% to 3.1%. While the NDC leadership has every reason to celebrate this huge victory by the President, they should exercise a bit of caution.<\/p>\n

Since we don\u2019t have any local precedent, we may have to cross the Atlantic for some reference. President Bush Snr, another vice president-cum President, won his presidential challenge with 2,166 delegates\u2019 votes. His closest rival, Pat Buchanan, got just 18 votes. That translates into less than 1% of the votes.<\/p>\n

What should be instructive for the NDC is the fact that in the Republicans\u2019 case,<\/strong> besides the delegates\u2019 vote, there was a popular vote as well. There, Bush got 9,199,463, (72.84%) and Buchanan got 2,899,488 (22.96%).<\/p>\n

Bush went on to suffer the second largest electoral vote shift in American history (517 vote shift), after Jimmy Carter\u2019s victory in 1976 (560 vote shift). On November 3, 1992, Bill Clinton beat Bush by receiving 43% of the popular vote, against Bush\u2019s 37%.<\/p>\n

The New Patriotic Party should however approach the 2012 election as if the NDC is formidably united, determined to win by all means. The party should not allow the NDC to make that cheap argument that a second term is a matter of entitlement.<\/p>\n

In an interview granted the\u00a0New Statesman,\u00a0Jake stated that it is not automatic that every government will get two terms in office as this is dependent on performance and not on \u201csongs\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0He said, \u201cIt is not an entitlement. It must be earned. Otherwise, no government would see the urgency in achieving anything in its first term, like we are seeing now.\u201d He could not have put it better.<\/p>\n

According to the NPP Chairman, the NDC has nothing better to offer Ghanaians as they have shown in their previous two terms and the last 2\u00bd years. Jake cited a litany of broken promises to the rising cost of living of Ghanaians ever since the NDC took power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2\u00bd years corruption has double doubled, prices of goods and services have double doubled, utility tariffs have double doubled and petroleum prices, which candidate Mills promised to reduce drastically, have double doubled. Virtually the prices of everything have double doubled under Mills,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He went on to give some examples, \u201cThe cost of constructing a 6-unit classroom block in 2008 was GH\u00a280,000.\u00a0In 2011, this has more than double doubled to GH\u00a2260,000 under Mills. Senior High School students paid fees within the region of GH\u00a2200 in 2008. Similarly, under Mills, this has double doubled to the region of over GH\u00a2400. Even the price of pure water has double doubled under Mills from 5 pesewas to 10 pesewas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, a Nigerian pastor, T B Joshua, might have done his bit to get Mills elected. But it is even rumoured that he warned against a second term! Today, the NDC is putting its fate in another Nigerian Pastor, Uche, and his song, \u2018Double Double\u2019.<\/p>\n

Ghanaians should not trouble trouble or else double trouble will trouble them in double time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more from the original source:
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\u201cIt\u2019s no exaggeration to say the undecided could go one way or another,\u201d was arguably one of the most profound statements made by George Bush Snr., in 1988, when the vice president to Ronald Reagan was trying to be his own man by standing for the highest office of the land. Four years later, during the 1992 New Hampshire presidential primary, the under-siege President Bush topped it by saying to employees of an insurance company, \u201cYou cannot be president of the United States if you don\u2019t have faith. Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial and the Civil War and all that stuff. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nWould It Be Double Double Or Double Trouble - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/14\/would-it-be-double-double-or-double-trouble\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Would It Be Double Double Or Double Trouble - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"\u201cIt\u2019s no exaggeration to say the undecided could go one way or another,\u201d was arguably one of the most profound statements made by George Bush Snr., in 1988, when the vice president to Ronald Reagan was trying to be his own man by standing for the highest office of the land. 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