Hatoyama’s approval rating cape

I’d like to think that this would be a lesson to voters but I’m sure it won’t. A lot of candidates get voted into office under the banner of “change”, as though that’s somehow a good thing (it’s neutral – change can be either good or bad). So when the novelty of voting for “someone else” wears off, the reality of “who is this guy?” settles in.

Case in point – Obama. He was elected in the US largely under the banner that he would unite the country. He had no real history of doing this, it was presumably because his being black would mean the US had gotten over racism (as though the Civil War and Civil Rights had nothing to do with it). Well, now US voters have buyer’s remorse. They now see that Obama is impotent in dealing with the economy, he’s ram-rodding a horrible health care package down our throats, and he’s seemingly indifferent to the wars in Iraq and Afganistan. The American public sees this which is why Democrats up for re-election next year are running for the hills like Noah’s neighbors during heavy rain.

I’d like to say “ah, voters have learned their lesson, they’ll look at candidates more closely in the future” but this has happened before and will happen again. “Change” isn’t a platform, it’s a slogan. Voters need to see that.