Jeb Bush Warns Republicans Not to Read Too Much in Election Results

With Republicans licking their lips over the victories they expect at the polls on Tuesday, they are being warned by former Gov. Jeb Bush that this does not constitute a mandate. Bush argued in an interview with the New York Times that the Republicans will pick up seats because Americans are fed up with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats--not because they are backing the Republicans.

The looming victories for Republican candidates next Tuesday is not a validation of the Republican Party at all, said Bush in the interview.

Bush may have a point. There has been a certain pattern in recent American politics as the political pendulum has swung back and forth between the two parties. Bill Clinton went too far and so the Republicans picked up both houses of Congress in 1994. But Newt Gingrich went too far and so the pendulum swung back to Clinton in 1996. Backers of George W. Bush were talking about a permanent Republican majority in 2004--and it lasted until 2006. The pendulum seems to be swinging again, this time back to the Republicans.

It seems that political parties get in trouble when they claim to have a mandate and Bush seems aware of it. As any students of the classics can tell you, Hubris is always followed by Nemesis and the pendulum will continue to swing.