--- title: TimeFrames: Politics, Presidents and Midterms | TIME description: Sr. political analyst Mark Halperin looks back at TIME's coverage of previous midterm elections and their impact on the presidents in office canonical: https://time.com/video/usg9r3Jr/ og:title: TimeFrames: Politics, Presidents and Midterms og:description: Sr. political analyst Mark Halperin looks back at TIME's coverage of previous midterm elections and their impact on the presidents in office og:url: https://time.com/video/usg9r3Jr/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/usg9r3Jr/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TimeFrames: Politics, Presidents and Midterms twitter:description: Sr. political analyst Mark Halperin looks back at TIME's coverage of previous midterm elections and their impact on the presidents in office twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/usg9r3Jr/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # TimeFrames: Politics, Presidents and Midterms > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TimeFrames: Politics, Presidents and Midterms [Watch (HLS stream): TimeFrames: Politics, Presidents and Midterms](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/usg9r3Jr.m3u8) (2:52)  _Published 2010-11-21. Sr. political analyst Mark Halperin looks back at TIME's coverage of previous midterm elections and their impact on the presidents in office_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:07 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Time's State of the Union Coverage Previewed by Mark Halperin](/video/ZKxICEdy/) ### Time's State of the Union Coverage Previewed by Mark Halperin [TimeFrames: Sects, God and Politics](/video/yc5UqAJ2/) ### TimeFrames: Sects, God and Politics [TimeFrames: Politics](/video/4PX8z3bC/) ### TimeFrames: Politics --- ## Transcript >> Presidents like unprepared school boys almost never do well on their midterm exams. Barack Obama was a great student, but the perception of his overreached governing as more of a liberal than he said he would or the country wants, these Democrats open to repudiation at the polls exactly 2 years after they won a smashing victory in 2008. I'm Mark Halperin, senior political analyst for TIME. Obama's promise of change has, for many Americans in these rough economic times, fallen flat. His name is not on the ballot but he's finding like most of his predecessors that the midterm election is all about him and a hardcore referendum on the kind of change he offered as a candidate. -[ unk ] >> For some, he's changed too little; for most others, however, way too much. >> We are in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. >> For 12 years- >> The voters gave Democrats Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman the same midterm message ­­- " You've gone too far ." The best presidents can do in the wake of a midterm shellacking- be philosophical. Dwight Eisenhower, after Democratic gains in the election of 1954, spoke a truth about that year's results and more generally about the American electorate: " I believe ," Ike said, " that the voters feel they want to avoid extremes ." >> I have- >> Lyndon Johnson after 1966 losses said, it was perhaps a good thing " to see a healthy and competent two- party system ." When Ronald Reagan suffered his second round of midterm losses in 1986, his pollster declared something of a truce: " The president must go about things in a more conciliatory fashion ," he said. >> A generation [ unk ]- >> In 1994, Bill Clinton was left to talk gamely about " a national sea change" and declare himself still relevant after sweeping Republican revolution made Newt Gingrich Speaker of the House. -[ unk ] >> 39- year- old Detroit housepainter, Steve Douglas, told TIME then, " We always vote for change, and we never get it ." Read this line from our November 1994 story and see history poised to repeat itself now. The Republicans have cast themselves again as enemies of big government and thus as friends of the people. Rare has been the president of either party who's avoided midterm losses, but Obama's two immediate predecessors were able to break the pattern: Clinton in 1998, after Gingrich did his own overreaching, and George W. Bush, rallying the nation in the wake of 9 / 11. TIME. com covers the political battlefield in real time, in Washington and all across the country. TimeFrames lets you understand how past presidents have dealt with this unusual test. 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