Does the Sphinx Have a Riddle?

Republican pollster Frank Luntz has a dream. It is the week before the 1994 midterm elections. President Clinton’s numbers are in the tank. America’s economic engine is still sputtering from the 1993 tax increases. Ross Perot, charts in hand, goes on all three networks simultaneously to denounce Congress as cowardly, corrupt, and out of touch. Citing instance after instance of special-interest favors, cronyism, and pork-barrel spending, he urges voters to cast their ballots against the incumbents, no matter who they are or what party they belong to.

Luntz enjoys this fantasy enough to have run the numbers. If one in ten voters heeds Perot’s call, over sixty representatives and ten senators lose their seats. Combine this with already-marginal districts and states where senatorial contests are a tossup, and America wakes up the day after the election to a Republican Senate and a Republican-dominated, if not -controlled, House. Hillary calls off her plans for redecorating the West Wing.

WA

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Wick Allison

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Presidential Election

Republican pollster Frank Luntz has a dream. It is the week before the 1994 midterm elections. President Clinton’s numbers are in the tank. America’s economic engine is still sputtering from the 1993 tax increases. Ross Perot, charts in hand, goes on all three networks simultaneously to denounce Congress as cowardly, corrupt, and out of touch. Citing instance after instance of special-interest favors, cronyism, and pork-barrel spending, he urges voters to cast their ballots against the incumbents, no matter who they are or what party they belong to.

Luntz enjoys this fantasy enough to have run the numbers. If one in ten voters heeds Perot’s call, over sixty representatives and ten senators lose their seats. Combine this with already-marginal districts and states where senatorial contests are a tossup, and America wakes up the day after the election to a Republican Senate and a Republican-dominated, if not -controlled, House. Hillary calls off her plans for redecorating the West Wing.